CARETAKING 



Now comes the vexed problem of pruning the young plant. This 

 is taken up in full in Chapter VII on pruning. 



During their tender nonage, the time between setting 

 Youns Plants ^^'-^ ^^^ &Tst fruiting, all plants must have a little 

 special care. Young trees badly stunted at this time 

 seldom recover. Fortunately, any departure from good health is 

 easily told in young plants, for the color of the leaves is as accurate 

 an index of health and vigor as the color of the tongue or the beat of 

 the pulse is in man. A change from the luxuriant green of thrifty 

 plant-foliage to the yellow hue, showing that the leaf-green is not 

 functioning properly, is suggestive of ill-health. 



Cultivation must be intensive, insects and fungi must be warded 

 off, mechanical injuries avoided, and the plants that refuse to grow 

 must be marked for discard. The summer care of the orchard the 

 second and third season does not differ materially from that of 

 the first, although there may be a little let-up in watchfulness. 



„ ^ , , A catch-crop is a crop grown between the rows of 



Catch-crops and . , '^ » jil c j.\. j a 



Cover-croos another crop tor pront from the produce. A cover- 



crop is a temporary crop grown to protect the soil 

 or to enrich it when plowed under. Both catch-crops and cover-crops 

 hold an important place in growing an orchard, whether large or small. 



In the home fruit-garden some sort of catch-crop is almost certain 

 to be planted each year until the trees come into bearing. Any and 

 all vegetables may be grown among the young trees without detri- 

 ment to them and to the end that the kitchen is well supplied with 

 garden produce. Raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, currants, 

 and strawberries may all be interplanted with trees in the home 

 orchard. Be it remembered, however, that land, to do duty by the 

 two crops, must be both good and well fertilized, and that the care 

 of both crops must be of the best. 



There is no doubt of the value of the cover-crop in the orchard, 

 when opportunity permits its planting. In home orchards, however, 

 catch-crops of vegetables are so commonly grown that it is seldom 

 that a cover-crop can be planted in time to be of any use. When land 

 is vacant by the middle of the summer, some cover-crop ought to be 

 planted to be turned under the next spring. This procedure will keep 

 the land in better tilth, enrich it, and make it more easily worked. 



Clover, vetch, oats, rape, rye, or buckwheat, all make good cover- 

 crops. The seed must be sown in July or early August, the quantity 

 being the same as when grown as a farm crop. The weather-map 



23 



