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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



366. Pasturing !he home orchard with sheep is often one of the best substitutes for tillage in strong, solid or 

 hilly land. The sheep crop the herbage close, eat wormy and diseased windfalls, and fertilize the trees 



five years, and then put it in sod again; 

 especially after the trees get into bearing 

 and grow less luxuriantly. This sweetens 

 the soil, puts it in better texture, lets in the 

 air, promotes germ life, and sets at work 

 all other agencies that make the soil congenial 

 to plants. 



TREES ON STEEP OR ROCKY LAND 



Fruit trees may occasionally be left in sod 

 when they are on very rocky or very steep 

 land. It is not wise for the amateur to 

 plant on such a site, if he can avoid it. If 

 he cannot it is certain that a home orchard 

 under such conditions is far better than none 

 at all. Care should be taken to keep the 



ground stirred for a few feet around the young 

 trees during the first two or three seasons 

 at least. 



CARE OF TREES IN THE YARD 



A third reason for keeping the home 

 fruit trees in sod is that of expediency. The 

 home grounds may be so small that no 

 definite area can be set aside for the orchard; 

 the fruit trees must be in the yard and a part 

 of the general planting. From my point 

 of view, fruit enthusiast though I am, a 

 lawn about the house contributes far more to 

 the home than a few fruit trees can ever do. 

 Do not, therefore, needlessly sacrifice the 

 lawn to the trees; plant them right in the 



367. Hens in the home orchard — a happy combination. The scratching is a good substitute for tillage in 

 some cases. The poultry need the range and shade ; they help to Keep down insects and add fertilizer 



sod if necessary. You may expect them to 

 be somewhat less satisfactory than if they 

 were tilled, and you should plan to manure 

 them highly and perhaps water them in 

 dry weather; but all this trouble is better 

 than having bare, ugly tilled land near the 

 house. Yet there are thousands who plant 

 fruit trees directly in front of the house and 

 give up all the pleasures of a lawn for a 

 few bushels of fruit. The fruit can be 

 bought, but the lawn cannot. Save the lawn, 

 the fruit trees on the side or in back, stir 

 up a little circle of soil around them when 

 they are young, give them liberal dressings 

 of manure, and a drink in thirsty weather. 



SODDING TO CHECK GROWTH 



The three cases noted above are, in my 

 opinion, the only ones which call for a more 

 or less permanent sod in the home orchard. 

 But there are cases where fruit trees can be 

 sodded temporarily to advantage; when they 

 are growing too rapidly, for instance, because 

 of excessive fertilizing or heavy winter pruning, 

 or from other causes. The permanent remedy 

 for this condition, naturally, is to fertilize 

 more judiciously, or prune lightly, perhaps 

 to summer prune a year or two. But sodding 

 the trees may be used as a temporary cor- 

 rective until the equilibrium is restored. 

 To illustrate: If your tilled pear trees are 

 growing luxuriantly, and hence are in danger 

 of being attacked by blight, it might be wise 

 to sod the orchard a year or two, or at least 

 to neglect tillage until the trees make a less 

 vigorous growth. 



PASTURE WITH CATTLE, HOGS, SHEEP, OR HENS 



Assuming that the home orchard is to be left 

 in sod, there are still other questions to be 

 settled. The grass may be cut for hay; the 

 orchard may be pastured with cattle, hogs, 

 sheep, or hens; it may be allowed to fall to 

 the ground where it grows, and return to the 

 soil; it may be cut and either allowed to 

 lie where it falls or gathered up and placed 

 around the trees. Each method is successful in 

 some places. Cutting orchard grass for hay, 

 however, is rarely profitable. The grass 

 sucks tons of moisture and stores of plant 

 food from the soil. If the sod is pastured 

 the plant food is mostly restored to it in the 

 droppings of the animals, and less moisture 

 is lost because the grass leaves do not get 

 large. If the grass is cut for hay, however, 

 the plant food in it is carted away, and the 

 soil is dried out by evaporation from an 

 immense leaf surface. 



Cow pasturage of the orchard is pretty 

 generally condemned. It is undoubtedly 

 good for the cows, especially in the season 

 of windfalls, but hard on the trees. The ends 

 of the branches are sure to be browsed more 

 or less and the compacting of soil around the 

 trees by the animals is often very injurious. 

 Hog pasturage is much better. Hogs do 

 carry on a sort of makeshift tillage, for 

 selfish ends, and make what passes with some 

 people for a soil mulch. Of course it does 

 some good, but it is not to be compared with 

 the mulch of horse-leg tillage for saving 

 soil moisture. If corn is dropped in crow- 

 bar holes here and there the tillage operations 



