46 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
With this chapter concludes the story of a modern farming experiment 
whose successes and setbacks have been chronicled in House & Garden 
from time to time. Recent chapters told of the author’s experience with 
dairying and open cultivation in the orchard. The present instalment 
solves the problem of cover crops as allies in apple growing .— Editor. 
FLORA LEWIS MARBLE 
W E are working primarily to establish 
a good, bearing orchard. Anything 
that will interfere with the best growth of 
the trees is not to be considered. How¬ 
ever, if an intercrop could be chosen which 
would not hinder the development of the 
trees and could be made to pay part of the, 
upkeep expense of these trees, it was to 
be welcomed as a side issue. 
Hoping always to prevent soil erosion,, 
we decided to try the following method 
on another twenty-acre plot of young trees 
with which we could experiment: 
We plowed carefully about the roots of 
the trees in the spring, cultivated with a 
one-horse harrow close to the trees until 
the middle of July, then put in a cover crop 
of rye and vetch in a strip of about 4' 
each side of the trees, thus leaving an open 
space between the rows for an intercrop 
which went in one way of the orchard in 
strips. This intercrop held the ground from 
washing during the early summer showers, 
while the alternate strips about the trees, 
planted with the cover-crop, were depended 
upon to hold the ground during the winter 
after the intercrop had been harvested. 
The Choice of an Intercrop 
Before choosing our intercrop we looked 
about to see what ones were recommended 
which would not interfere with the growth 
of the young trees. Professor Surface, 
Pennsylvania State Economic Zoologist, 
says: “While trees are young there is no 
reason why cultivated crops should not be 
grown between them. Potatoes, cabbage, 
peas and beans, and sometimes in extensive 
orcharding it becomes advisable to grow 
corn. Potatoes are better, however, than 
corn in a young orchard after the first 
season.” Another authority says : “A very 
satisfactory rotation for use in large or¬ 
chard tracts is as follows : 
early potatoes, clover and 
timothy grown for either 
one or two years, corn and 
field beans.” 
With the best advice, ! 
therefore, we could grow 
potatoes, corn and beans, 
or any small crop like to¬ 
matoes, between our trees. 
Now the questions came 
up: How much money is 
to be had from general 
crops? Will crops pay as 
intercrops ? Can money 
be made from crops un¬ 
der ordinary conditions, 
or must they be special¬ 
ized, as Professor Bailey 
says of the apple, for the 
“extra normal or superior 
quantity and quality?” 
In order to get a little 
experience we started po¬ 
tatoes on a small scale. 
The best growers say that 
fine seed is essential to 
success, so we started in 
by planting 12 bushels of 
first quality seed to the acre. 
This is a fair planting for 
America under ordinary con¬ 
ditions of culture, although 
Scotch and Irish potato grow¬ 
ers are said to plant as many 
as 37 bushels of seed to the 
acre. Three acres were plant¬ 
ed in strips between 535 trees. 
The upkeep care of these 
trees for that season was 
$74.90. The potato experi¬ 
ment resulted as follows: 
Seed (36 bushels) ... .$48.00 
Fertilizer (2-8-10, 1,000 
lbs.) . 16.50 
Plowing and harrowing 8.00 
Cutting and preparing 
seed . 3.65 
Planting . . .. 25.60 
Cultivating . 12.75 
Spraying (material, 
$1.28, labor $19.50). 20.78 
Hand working, cutting 
weeds, etc.).. 9.80 “We adopted a small, neglected orchard and worked it on 
Hio-mno-' .4R 7^ shares for the immediate fruit harvest. From it came 
... ho./ a medium fruit that kept us all in apples for a year” 
Hauling to cellar, sort¬ 
ing, etc. 7.07 
Crates (200) . 27.72 All things considered, we decided to try 
- again so as to settle the matter. 
$228.62 This time we saved 177 bushels of our 
best seed from the first experiment and 
The crop returned 384 bushels. The cost, planted it in rows between 2,556 apple trees, 
exclusive of crates, was 52 cents a bushel. We valued the seed at the best general 
The market price ranged from 50 to 60 market price of the season, not at the price 
cents a bushel. If we sold them at the high- we would have had to pay if we had pur¬ 
est price we received $230.40 and made chased new seed. This experiment showed 
$1.78 more than actual money spent, having the following figures: 
the crates left for a profit. This did not 177 bushels of seed at 60 cents. .. .$106.20 
go far toward paying the expense item for Sorting and care of seed during 
the care of the trees. However, it was a winter . 31.85 
bad year; everyone lost on potatoes because Fertilizer (2-8-10, 3,000 lbs.). 54.00 
of continued wet weather. Plowing . 38.00 
Plarrowing. 28.00 
...Cutting and pre¬ 
paring seed.... 41.55 
Planting . 49 .98 
Cultivating. 36.00 
Spraying (mate¬ 
rial, $7.50; labor 
$21.90) . 29.40 
Digging, hauling, 
etc. 146.10 
A mixture of grass , clover and alfalfa was sown in the orchard with a nurse 
crop of oats. After the oats were cut there remained a firm sod mulch that 
tremendously improved the young trees and checked erosion 
$561.48 
The crop yielded 1,004 
bushels. Over part of 
the field the yield aver¬ 
aged 175 bushels to the 
acre. One section, 
through bad management, 
was not cultivated prop¬ 
erly and brought the yield 
down to 125p2 bushels per 
acre, which was bad, con¬ 
sidering the quantity and 
quality of the seed sown. 
However, if the selling 
price had been good, ex¬ 
penses on the potatoes 
could have been cleared. 
(Continued on page 64) 
