A Rotation Suggestion 127 



eases and pests of strawberries, raspberries and blackber- 

 ries. The rotation may be between different kinds of fruits 

 themselves, or between fruits and field-crop courses. The 

 point is that fruit-growing practice ought not to be com- 

 pletely isolated from general farm-management plans. 



Rotation between the fruit-plantations themselves, 

 may be very desirable in some cases. If one has a 100-acre 

 farm on which he wishes to make a specialty of peaches, he 

 might set aside six fields of 10 acres each, and set them in 

 twelve-year rotations or blocks, planting a new orchard 

 every three years. In this way there would always be a 

 new orchard coming into bearing, the grower could apply 

 the experience of one orchard to the succeeding one, and 

 he could prepare the land thoroughly in advance of each 

 setting, and he would have some land left for other crops. 



On small farms, such a plan could not be applied, 

 except for small-fruits. Neither would it be adaptable to 

 farms presenting very different or various conditions; for 

 many properties are broken into irregular fields by creeks, 

 gulches, slopes, forests or hills, and only a part of such 

 natural subdivisions might be adapted to fruit. 



The following display shows how this plan would 

 work out. The heavy figures show orchards in bearing; 

 it will be seen that there are always three orchards in 

 bearing after the plan is in full working maturity. It is 

 assumed that six years intervene between the plantings 

 on the same ground. The letters a, b, c show how the 

 elements in a three-course crop-rotation would combine 

 with the orchards, if it is assumed that it would be safe 

 or desirable to crop the orchard lightly for the first three 

 years. The blank or treeless years would be used in gen- 

 eral field-crop practice. This plan is not recommended, 

 but is given to suggest a line of study: 



