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Thk Canadian Horticulturist. 103 



WKSriCRX XKW YORK HORI ICULTURAL -SOCIK TV. -II. 



' ' *; ROFESSOR ROBERTS, of CornL-ll University, gave a very interes- 

 ting address upon " The Methods of Maintaining the Fertility of the 

 Orchards.' He said that the productiveness of the orchard does 

 not always depend upon the amount of plant food in the soil. The 

 •|^ fcrtilitv of the soil ought to mean the amount of i)lant food which 

 "■ may be set free by proper methods of treatment, but, in many cases, 

 large amounts of plant food are locked up in the soil of an orchard 

 which only need proper treatment to become available for the trees. In such 

 cases it is- not the addition of manure, so much as cultivation, that is needed. 

 The orchard should be ploughed deep, and often, while the trees are young. The 

 great trouble with most orchardists is the lack of both skill and force to bring 

 out the fertility which is in the soil. While the trees are young they should not 

 be forced into a too rapid, succulent growth : a healthy, continuous and hardy 

 growth is more desirable. 



When once in fruit the trees need extra food. Perhaps they should not 

 always be under the plow. Clover may be raised in the orchard. This need 

 not always be re-plowed in order to continue the clover seed. The seed will 

 take in an old meadow almost as well as if re-plowed. It should be harrowed 

 every spring and sown with clover seed and ashes. 



We hear a good deal said about trees that are great producers. This is not 

 the best condition. There is such a thing as " the more you have the less you've 

 o-ot.'" Quality is everything now-a days. Numbers ruin, and quantity floods the 

 market. 



Pruning, too, is of great importance. Is it not possible to prune the orchard 

 much on the same principle as we prune the grape vine ? Is the plant food im- 

 proved in quality by transporting it through 80 feet of wood before reaching the 

 ruit which it is destined to support ? We grow too much timber in our apple 

 orchards. We ought to separate forestry from fruit culture. Our orchardists 

 are growing too much wood, too many seeds, and too many poorly flavored 

 apples. If by heading back the top and furnishing a reasonable amount of plant 

 wood, by fertilizing, cultivating, or by feeding sheep in an orchard, we can remedy 

 this difticulty, a great advance will be made. 



Prof. Roberts' whole address was of a practical and suggestive nature, and 

 we give in another column a verbatim selection from it. 



Mr. Woodward said that he agreed with Prof. Roberts' statements. He. 

 himself, always made a sheep [jasture of his orchard, and it was a fact that the 

 sheep made the best insecticides he ever had. He would advise keeping one 

 hundred sheep on every ten acres of orchard. Do not starve them. ( iive them 

 plentv of linseed meal and bran, to pay them for the good they do, and this will 

 make them ravenous for apples. He had not plowed his orchard for fourteen 



