Cropping 103 



as on other areas; and the drier the land, the less it should 

 be cropped. When the orchard conies to bearing age, it 

 should have the entire land. Thereafter, the most profit- 

 able secondary crop to raise is cultivators. 



In general, only those crops are allowable in a fruit- 

 plantation that demand such treatment as to improve the 

 land for the fruit-plants. The growing of light crops is a 

 means of keeping the land stirred when it might other- 

 wise be neglected; and if the grower is careful to see that 

 the physical condition of the land is improved, and adds 

 enough plant-food to supply the loss, the light cropping 

 of orchards for the first few years may be a decided benefit. 

 At all events, tilled crops are better than sod. The danger 

 is that the fruit-grower will continue the cropping too long, 

 and expect too much from it. Strawberries and the bush- 

 fruits may be advantageously set in alternate rows with 

 beans or potatoes, and the same tillage is required for each 

 crop. It is well to fertilize the tilled crop hberally, for the 

 trees will receive some of the benefit. When orchards 

 begin to bear well, the crops should be discontinued. 



The growing of nursery stock in orchards — a frequent 

 practice in parts of the North — should be discouraged. 

 This crop makes essentially the same demands on the land 

 as the orchard itself, and it does not allow of those varia- 

 tions in cultivation and management that may be essential 

 to the varying seasons. It may be true that enough fertil- 

 izer can be used to replace the loss of plant-food, but it is 

 rarely added; and, more than this, the nursery stock con- 

 sumes the moisture that should be used by the orchard. 

 Nursery stock is known to be particularly hard on land, 

 so much so that nurserymen seldom grow two crops of 

 fruit-tree stocks in succession on the same area; but this 

 injury to the land is an impairment of physical or other 



