Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1877-03-16
m.nnrement Of Brand orehsrds.

fruit orchards will require a given
system of management. Hence a
pomologist to be satisfactorily sue
cessful in raising fruit, must know a
great deal. A few years ago, | was
in Herkimer county, of this State,
when a friend was gathering his aP-
pies: and saw them pluck by hand
fifteen barrels of choice gillifowers
from one tree, besides several bush
els of bruised ones and culls. No
fertiIizing material had ever been ap-
piled to the soil near the tree. The
ground was covered with a dense
mat of grass; and the soil had not
been disturbed for half a score of
years. The best system of manage
ment for that orchard as well for all
other fruit trees when growing on
such soil, is to let grass grow dd
li6itun1, over the entire surface. The
soil consisted of dry, deep, fertile
clay loan. When fruit trees of any
sort are transplanted on any soil,
after they have attained a strong
growth. the better way to manage
them is to stock the land down with
grass seed, aud let the trees take care
of themselves. have in mind sew
eral other apple trees that grew
where the soil consisted of a rich
clay loan, which did actually yield
thirty bushels per tree every season.
In one of my fathers old orchards, |
remember a tree that frequently pro :
duced an ox-cart box full of apples,
fully thirty bushels. But after he
directed tree murderer to 90 into
his orchard, and slash off limbs with
his ak, as large as mans leg, that
tree never was known to yield one
fourth as much fruit. A great many
orchardists have adopted that sys-
TEN of letting their trees alone,
where there is no soil, where the
formation of the ground consists of
unfertile earth, where tree would
not attain the average size during a
period of twenty years. 1t would
be ruinous to the productiyeness of
the trees to allow such ground to
produce in grass. When fruit trees
of any sort must be planted in such
an uncongenial soil Tor rather unprO-
ductive earth) the true system of
management will be to keep the
ground cultivated from year to year.
The soil may produce hoed crops
provided the careful farmer will re-
turn to the ground annually, a fair
equivalent in manure, for the crops
removed. If the land will not yield
a medium crop Of grain, the better
system of management will be to
scarify the surface with two-horse
cult1vator, early in the spring, and
then sow four bushels of Indian corn
per acre, harrow it in, or cover the
seed with a cultivator, and plough
the green crop under when the maize
is in full bloom. At any season of
the year let muck, clay, coal ashes,
wood ashes, refuse matter, street
cleanings, the refuse of tanneries and
wooden mills, saw dust, or shavings
made at planning mills, vegetable
mold that can be collected in forests,
and all the stable manure that can
be gathered, should be spread around
the trees, and be worked into the
poor soil with cultivator. Every
one Of the substances mentioned will
aid materially in renOvating the soil,
and thus furnishing supply of APP
pie producing material for the grow
ing trees. Grass should never be al
lowed to form a turf among fruit
trees where the soil is similar to the
land just alluded to.
have in mind the orchard of
friend, which would yield nothing
but small, knotty and worthless ap-
pies, until he spread about two tons
of clay on The surface around each
tree. The clay was hauled in the
winter and spread about each tree as
far as the longest branches extended.
Ever after that dressing of clay was
applied, the apples were abundant,
fair and large. That soil needed
clay. Every fruit tree wants clay
Yet, where the whole earth is com
posed largely of clay, the growing
trees need sand much saw dust, tan
bark, coarse, strawy manure, and any
other material that will assist in rem
dering the indurated clay less com
pact, and in developing the fertility
that is locked up in the compact
mass of earth that needs to be brok-
en- up and worked over before the
roots of growing trees can feed on
the elements that will produce fruit.
Many fruit trees are standing
where the soil consists chiefly of
muck of an unknown depth. Some
times there is so much alumina or clay,
and silica, or sand, and potassa or
potash within the reach of the roots,
that the branches will be loaded
with luscious fruit. But, after a
fruit tree has attained bearing size,
and it does not yield a crop, the or
chardist ought to know what ele-
ments are lacking that are essential
to the production of a crop. Let
me Illustrate my meaning. A pear
grower of New Jersey, who resides
not far from me, told me that the
Onondaga pear had always been
total failure on his farm, as the eli
mate was not right for that variety.
But when l visited one of his
neighbors less than half mile, from
him, | saw his Onondaga pear trees
literally loaded with beautiful pears.
In one case the essential elements of
nutrition were lacking in the soil,
while in the other instant, they were |
not sufficiently available to produce
bountltul crop of fair fruit. l have
in mind another professional pomolo-
gist who resides only few miles
from me on the same line of latitude |
and who fatters himself that he un-
derstands all the manutia necessary |
TO produce fruit where given vari-
ty will succeed. Yet, he AYERS that
he cannot raise Delaware grapes, as
that variety is not adapted to our