Orchard Fruits and Berries 309 



former differ from the latter not only in their habits of 

 growth, but in the character and composition of the crop 

 produced, and in their relation to soil exhaustion. General 

 farm crops, with few exceptions, require but one year for 

 the entire processes of vegetation and maturation. Fruit 

 crops, as a rule, require a preparatory period of growth of 

 tree or bush before any crop is produced, which is longer 

 or shorter according to the kind of fruit. Furthermore, 

 after the fruit-bearing period begins, the vegetative proc- 

 esses do not cease, but are coincident with the growth and 

 ripening of the fruit. The crop product, or the fruit, also 

 differs materially in its character from the general farm 

 crop, or from vegetables, which reach their harvesting 

 stage and die in one season, because for many kinds a whole 

 season is required for growth and development. 



That is, in fruit-growing it is necessary that there shall 

 be a constant transfer of the nutritive juices from the tree 

 to the fruit throughout the entire growing season, while 

 the growth for each succeeding year of both tree and fruit 

 is dependent upon the nutrition stored up in buds and 

 branches, as well as upon that which may be derived 

 directly from the soil. 



" In the next place, the relation of fruit-growing to soil 

 exhaustion is very different from that in general-crop 

 farming, because in orchards there is an annual demand 

 for specific kinds and definite proportions of soil constitu- 

 ents. It is really a continuous cropping of the same kind, 

 and there is no opportunity, as in the case of ordinary farm 

 crops, to correct the tendency to exhaustion by a frequent 

 change of crops, or the frequent growth of those which 

 require different kinds and amounts of plant-food con- 

 stituents." l 



1 Voorhees, "Manuring Orchards." Lecture before Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society, 1896. 



