NURSBK YMEN-OR CHARDISTS 



Cultivating a Peach Orchard in April — A Great Labor Saver. 



Trees sometimes can be planted to advantage farther apart one 

 way than another. To do this, you have to work out the plan for 

 your own orchards. This plan works best on steep hills. The 

 rows should follow^ the lines of the hill to make driving easier. 

 Xo rules can be laid down for hillside arrangement. Use some 

 modification of the plans given here. (See diagram.) 

 • Cultivation of Orchards. Cultivation keeps the trees sup- 

 plied with available plant-food and saves moisture. Young or- 

 chards of any kind always should be cultivated clean, from early 

 spring until in July. Plow or tear up the soil as soon as ground 

 is dry enough to work, harrow after every rain, and every week 

 or ten days until it is time to sow the cover-crop or mulch for 

 winter. Keep them hustling. 



Cover- Crops. A cover-crop should be sown in the latter part 

 of the summer, when trees have made their growth for the year, 

 and when both fruit and trees have begun to ripen. Cover-cropg 

 hold the soil together and keep it from leaching out and gullying, 

 and also newly sown plants take up water in great amounts and 

 take it away from the trees. This is the thing desired at this 

 time, for tree-growth needs a check then. Young plants require 

 a great deal of nitrogen, but less potash and phosphorus. As the 

 cover-crop grows.it feeds largely on the nitrogen, leaving much pot- 

 ash and phosphorus for the trees just when they need them most. 

 Cowpeas, vetch, rye and the clovers make excellent cover-crops. 



Fertilizing. Stable manure is one of the best fertilizers for 

 feeding a young growing orchard. Scatter the manure on top of 

 the ground around the trees, at least as far from the trunks as 

 the branches extend, so that the fine fibrous roots can take up the 

 fertilizing elements. 



Make your soil fine and loose before you add fertilizer, and you 

 will not need to add so much. No two pieces of land are alike in 

 plant-food needs. Learn to know what elements are lacking, and 

 supply them in right proportions. 



Potash, nitrogen and phosphoric acid are the plant-foods that 

 have to be supplied. Nitrogen is best obtained through legumi- 

 nous cover-crops. Potash and phosphorus have to be supplied in 

 chemical form. 



Nitrogen is the growing material, making wood and size in 

 fruit ; potash goes into fruit, making flavor and color ; phosphoric 

 acid goes into wood and seeds (use only a fifth as much of it as 

 of potash). 



Get plant-foods on the ground evenly, over a space at least 

 twice as wide as the branches cover, and apply at the right season. 



Double crops pay, but you must supply plant-food and mois- 

 ture for everything that grows on the land. Do not rob the trees. 



