1 62 AMERICAN POMOEOGICAIy SOCIETY 
expected under the conditions of ownership at the present time. For the past 
five or six years extensive orchard buying has been indulged in by city people 
who have been led to believe that the possession of an orchard was all 
that was necessary to financial success in orchard work. When extremely 
low prices were received for the first or second crop harvested, these people 
were the first to sacrifice their orchards and turn to other interests. The 
writer knows personally of dozens of people who even went so far as to fail 
to give their orchard any care whatever during the past year and now realize, 
only too dearly, that an orchard in an irrigated district is after all a very 
temporary affair and must be cared for constantly if it is to be annually 
productive and not deteriorate in value. Western orchards are not like 
Eastern orchards, if neglected even for one year in some districts they 
rapidly deteriorate; repeatedly neglected they soon become useless, being 
worth little or no more than the land and water right. These facts being 
coupled with the requirements of spraying, pruning, thinning and harvesting 
makes orcharding entirely too hazardous for the careless owner in the 
Pacific Northwest. 
Cultural Methods Changing. 
The methods of caring for an orchard in the Northwest have been 
changing very rapidly during the past four years. The markets have been 
constantly demanding a more highly colored apple, while the care of, the 
orchard has tended towards the reverse until recently. And now the clean 
cultivated, bearing orchard in the irrigated section is giving place to the 
mulch system orchard. This makes possible heavier yields of a medium 
sized, highly colored fruit and at the same time protects the soil of the 
orchard from rapid depletion, particularly where a leguminous mulch is 
employed. The ultimate effects of this change are rather difficult to foresee; 
however, one factor is assured, and that is, that there is serious danger 
of the mulch materially injuring the orchard if not intelligently managed. 
While clover, alfalfa and hairy vetch are all being used as permanent mulch 
crops, alfalfa, as a general rule, is the more preferable, particularly where 
hay or pasture returns are at all desirable. The clover will not stand the 
necessary early spring cultivation that an orchard should have to put the 
soil in good shape, while the alfalfa is particularly benefited by this culture. 
So while clover is used, it is especially used, by those who expect to again 
return to clean culture and do not want the trouble of exterminating the 
alfalfa. The merits of the two crops are almost equal for their own particu- 
lar soils. 
The Hairy vetch mulch is comparatively a new factor. It makes pos- 
sible a clean cultivation period each year and the best kind of mulch the 
balance of the year. It is proving an especially heavy nitrogen adder and 
a great humus producer even on very poor soil. In orchards where it has 
given the best results it has been grown for the past four years and the 
plan of cultivation is as follows: Early each Summer at about the close of 
the vetch growing period, the soil is thoroughly disced up and the orchard 
ditched for irrigation. The soil is permitted to rest until water is needed. 
After the water is applied the new growth comes on very slowly and may 
or may not be disced again before Fall; in any event, the growth during 
