Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1885-01-09
FARM AND FlRESIDE.
The Care of the Orchard.

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The Care OF the Orchard.
Many an orchard, otherwise
healthy, is unprOductive because
the trees are literally starved
There is no sufficient nutriment of
the right kind in the soil to enable
them to produce crops of fruit.
Their vitality is expended in the
effort to maintain life, just as an
animal on insufficient food cannot
put ON flesh and fat. The ash of
the apple tree bark and sap wood
contains a large per cent. of potash.
and this is an indication that pot.
ash, in some form, is indispensa BILE
IN the soil to ensure a healthy
growth and fruitfulness. If de-
nelent on account of cropping of
the land or exhausted in the soil
Oy the tree growth, it must be
supplied. Wood ashes, especially
OF hard wood, furnishes one of the
d best forms for supplying it to the
tree. Rotten chips or decayed
leaves from the forest, as also
Il
deeomposed peat or muck, are all
neutrality-suspicious. to the orchard
which, with enough stable manure
40 supply the needed heterogeneous
e'ements, should be supplied in
Sufficient quantity. All applica
ions should be made broadcast TO
the soil instead of being placed
around the trunks, as is the prac.
tice OF some. This practice of feed
ing a tree is about as sensible as to
tie an animal by the head to an
empty manger and then heap up
iced behind it. The tree feeds from
the nOrous roots always found at
the extremities of the large roots,
which extend as far under ground
as the branches do overhead. If
the food is to do the tree any good,
u must be placed where these
feeders can reach it and not be.
yond their reach, as it is when
heaped up around the trunk. In
q young orchard this feeding need
not necessarily be extended TO the
HRole surface, bat should at least
cover all the ground shaded by the
branches. If spread upon the sur
face the rains will carry the ele-
ments needed into the soil, where
the roots can find them. The
worst use to which ground occupied
by an orchard can be put is to
crop 1t with small grain, which
robs the soil Of not only the plant
food, but the moisture which the
trees need.
Next to this is a grass crop.
which Is made into hay. In its
earlier years the orchard should be
IN hoed crops. Later it can be
pastured by stock without serious
injury. Sheep are of all Others the
best stock for an orchard. Their
dropplngs enrich the soil more than
those of any other stock. They
keep down all sprouts within their
reach and pick up every wormy
apple that falls before the worm
has had time to find a shelter else
where from which to breed a new
crop Of worms.
Next to these are hogs, and the
more pigs and shOats the better, as
they are more active than mature
0nimals. Not unfrequently an or
chard sets fairly full of fruit, but a
hot, dry time comes on and the
most Of the apples fall before half
grown. Some orchardists make a
practice Of keeping the ground
under the trees heavily mulched
with straw or other coarse material
This keeps the ground cool and
moist, counteracts the ELECTS of
the hea and drouth and enables
the tree to carry its crop to ma
turity, while the gradual rottin q of
the mulching keeps up the fertility
Of the soil.