'M FIELD NOTES OX APPLE CULTURE. 



during the winter. I have often made comparative ob- 

 servations on the effects of snow and no snow in the 

 large peach orchards along the east shore of Lake Michi- 

 gan, but I was never able to see any decided advantages 

 of the snow protection. If the snow can be held without 

 the expenditure of much labor, or without running the 

 risk of seeding the farm to weeds, then it may be desirable. 

 If the orchard is not in sod, the most desirable fall 

 treatment I have ever known is sowing rye early in Sep- 

 tember. The rye does not demand a deeply plowed soil, 

 but the shallow plowing is sufficient to turn under weeds, 

 and the subsequent growth of the grain will keep down 

 those which may start. In the spring the rye may be 

 plowed under early as a manure. 



The whole question of how much and what kind of 

 cultivation the orchard is to receive, will depend directly 

 upon the kind of crops grown in it. If it is necessary to 

 grow grain — wheat, oats or barley — in the orchard, year 

 after year, the orchard had better be given up entirely. 

 I never knew any profit to come from such an orchard. 

 On the other hand, I would not recommend giving up the 

 gi-ound entirely to the trees for the first few years. In 

 most cases the trees will receive just the cultivation 

 that the crops which are grown among them receive, 

 and, if no crop is raised, the cultivation of the orchard 

 will probably be neglected. For ten years, or more, 

 after apple trees are set, the soil ought to yield fair crops 

 of potatoes, corn or garden vegetables, and the same is 

 often true of a peach orchard for three or four years. In 

 most cases it is a direct benefit to the trees to grow crops 

 among them, and if a liberal amount of manure is used 



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