97 



cases the young trees are worked with a hoe. Orchards in 

 which hoe work is done are usually on rough land. 



In 37.44 per cent of the young orchards the trees are 

 tilled by means of growing a catch-crop in the young orchard. 

 This seems to be a very common practice. Various catch-crops 

 are grown as will be shown later. The fruit growers have 

 given attention to the matter of rotation as well as fertili- 

 zation in connection with the catch-crops. They seem to take 

 great pains to return to the land the equivalent of the plant 

 food removed by the catch-crop so that the trees may not suf- 

 fer. A catch-crop, in many cases, helps to cover the expense 

 of growing the trees to the bearing age. 



Regardless of the system of tillage employed, the 

 growers have laid great stress on the cover-crops. 



Catch-Crops in the Commercial Orchards . - In order 

 to find out to what extent catch-crops are grown in the or- 

 chards and what crops are most satisfactory for this purpose, 

 the following question was asked: "Do you crop the orchard, 

 if so what crop do you think most satisfactory" . 



One hundred and eighty-four growers answered this 

 question. Twenty-four of these growers stated that they 

 grew no crop for profit in their orchards j that is they took 

 nothing off the land. A large majority of the growers take 

 one crop or another from their orchards. This is done in 



