52 



BIGGIE ORCHARD BOOK 



CULTIVATION OF YOUNG TREES. John A. Warder, 

 in his book about apples, says : " If the ground, which 

 has been appropriated to the orchard, be also occupied 

 as farming- land, as is usually done for a few years 

 after planting, while the trees are small, it should be 

 exclusively devoted to hoed crops ; by which is meant 

 those that require constant cultivation and stirring of 

 the soil. " That's the idea, exactly. While the trees 

 are coming into bearing, and before they have need 

 of all the land, we can kill two birds with one stone 

 i. e.> give tillage to the trees and cultivation to a 



STRAWBERRIES IN YOUNG PEACH ORCHARD 



marketable crop, all at one operation. We can, for 

 several years, grow strawberries in rows, or potatoes, 

 or some other cultivated crop. What we ought not to 

 do, is to grow hay or any of the grain crops ; nor 

 should we let the land grow up to weeds. If we do 

 not care to grow any crop on the land except trees 

 (and some large orchardists prefer this method) , we 

 should plow the ground in early spring, and then har- 

 row it regularly every two weeks until about August 

 first, at which time some * ' cover crop ' ' is sown. (See 

 Chapter IX.) 





