No. 4.] SOIL IN FRUIT CULTURE. 71 



Our present system is to plant permanent varieties of 

 apples 40 feet apart each way, and interplant with fillers 

 of early bearing kinds 20 feet each way ; and we are trying 

 the experiment of again interplanting with dwarf trees 10 

 feet apart, Avitli clean culture in the early part of the season 

 and cover crops of clover. The soil is expected not only to 

 carry this large number of trees to bearing age, but to be 

 steadily improved at the same time. 



We have one orchard planted by my father fifty-eight 

 years ago, the trees standing 33 feet apart. The soil is com- 

 pletely filled with interlacing roots. For many years the 

 orchard was in sod, bearing crops quite regularly, in which 

 was a large per cent of inferior fruit. For several years it 

 has been under high tillage, with crimson and red clover 

 sown annually at the rate of 15 pounds of seed to the acre 

 in June or early July, and plowed in each spring ; with the 

 result that the soil has not only steadily improved, but the 

 crops of 1904 and 1905 have never been exceeded in quan- 

 tity or in quality, and have never sold for so high value. 



I want to say, in connection with this, that the orchard 

 has not had a dollar's worth of other fertilizers applied dur- 

 ing thirty years. I am testing this matter to an extreme. 

 It only goes to prove Avhat I have already stated, — that 

 much of our soil is rich in mineral plant food to-daj^ with 

 all we have taken from it. There are thousands of acres 

 of land to-day that are considered reduced, worn out and 

 useless, that are not so by any means. They are abundantly 

 supplied with mineral plant food. Let us supplement that 

 now by the liberal use of green crops plowed in, and we 

 shall find that we may grow profitable crops even without 

 the aid of commercial fertilizers. We must get more from 

 our land. 



If there were more time, I' need only refer to the culture 

 of the soil as it is carried out in England, in France, in Bel- 

 gium, in Denmark and in Italy, to show that after thousands 

 of years of cultivation they are getting yields of crops 

 that surprise us. I have known of instances around Paris 

 where a single acre of land, in the growing of garden 

 crops and very often fruit crops, is yielding over $2,000 

 to-day, and upon which an annual rental of |250 is paid. 



