FIFTEENTH .INNUAL MEETING. 1 49 



there. lxx"uise the size ami the color and tlie (|uaUt_\' of our 

 fruit (lei)encls in a great measure cm the water contained in 

 our soil; we can't get beautiful apples, we can't get beautiful 

 luscious peaches without we have the water there, it is a 

 necessity. And it is a well known fact that there is nothing 

 that conserves the water supply in the soil as well as cultiva- 

 tion. We use when it is necessary a harrow with a large 

 tooth, whether it be a spading harrow, a cutaway harrow or 

 anything else that would cut it up wdien it is necessary, but 

 when we are not obliged to do that, we use a fine tooth har- 

 row simply to keep the surface broken all the time through 

 the season. Xow the old way used to be that we would go 

 to work and plough the orchards in x^pril, and put the harrow 

 on and harrow it every week until June or the first of July. 

 While we like to keep to those early harrowings in order to 

 keep the ground mellow on the top and conserve the fertility, 

 yet it seems to us we must go further than that, that a little 

 later the fruit will begin to swell and the draft on those trees 

 is much heavier than it was earl\- in the spring, so we want to 

 keep a continuous harrowing until later in the season, so it 

 has got to be the first of August or after before we cease ctil- 

 tivation in those orchards, and by that time our fruit is plump 

 and well colored. And, by the way, the color depends on the 

 sunshine. That leads me ofif to another point that probably 

 is not within my topic, yet I will speak of it. The color of 

 the Oregon apples, the color of the Colorado apples, the Ozark 

 region apples, depends on the long continued sunshine they 

 have in those regions, and that means we have got to intelli- 

 gently trim our trees, so that each apple may stand out by 

 itself, so that the wind and the sun can kiss the cheeks of the 

 fruit ; that is what makes color. We all of us know there is 

 no painter like the sun. Knowing that, then, it is clear to us 

 that while we have not the immense amount of sunshine that 

 they have in those western regions, we must utilize every bit 

 of sunshine we have got. The work in Delaware, then, for 

 orchard fertility is to do all the cultivation we can for the 

 tree, and to conserve all the fertility we can and all the water 

 we can by the use of .the cultivator. In a word, to repeat. 



