The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1885-05-23
Mnnuring Old Orchards.

One of the popular fallacies that still
fingers in rural districts, is that mature
orchards do not need fertilizers. Farmers
may be painstaking in the planting, and
in cultivating the orchard for few
years, until 1t comes into bearing, but,
as rule, after, that, it is neglected, and
not infrequently either pastured or
moved, and the soil is compelled to bear
two crops annually, without manure,
until it is exhausted. Then the cry is
raised that ''it does not pay to plant
orchards, at best we only get fruit in
abundance every other year" The folly
of this neglect is demonstrated every
year, and the facts are published abund-
antly in the agricultural papers, but
unfortunately these journals have quite
limited circulation, even in the farm
ing towns. They are numbered by tens
and twenties, where they ought to be by
hundreds. On the old homestead, where
the writer ate apples from the tree and
the barrel, raw, cooked and preserved
the year round in the age of homespun,
there was an old tree famous for its
early apples, Seeding, and an invet-
crate bearer in alternate years. 1t
happened in the enlargement of the
garden, that the ground underneath
this tree was plowed, manured, and
planted with potatoes, and as result,
the bearing year was changed, and we
had two full crops in successive years.
The manure helped this result, and the
rotting of the sod that had been accumu-
lating for years helped still more. The
fact did not impress the owner much,
but it did impress, the boy who helped
to eat the apples, and turned the grind
stone under the grateful shade. 1t is a
well-known fact that pear and apple
trees that stand in gardens, especially in
village gardens which have liberal fer
tilizing and cultivation every year, bear
regularly, and are seldom without fruit,
except when the frost or hail destroys
it. Men who make a speciality of grow
ing fruit for market, and feed their trees
abundantly, get well paid for their labor,
and send apples to the city markets by
the car or boat-load. The secret of their
uniform success is in the fact that they
feed their trees regularly, and thin out
all superAuous wood, and give the
orchard all needed attention. They DO
not steal away the food of the trees In
grass or grain crops. They are conten
with tina fruit. There is no reason why
the average farmer, who has suitable
land for fruit trees, should not have
an abundant supply of fruit for home
use, and for market. 1t is in the line
of his business to raise crops for market,
and to make the manure that is needed
to produce them. 1t is in the line Of a
true economy to purchase the fertilizers
that are lacking to grow maXium crops.
1t does not pay to grow minimum crops.
Cultivate only so much land as you can
fertilize and improve by cultivation.
Riches increase with the depth rather
than breadth of the soil turned by the
plow. The orchard wants regular feed
ing, as much as any other crop, and
fruit growers have learned that there is
economy init. 1t will not be very diff.
cult for any thrifty farmer to increase
his homemade fertilizers, and to'supply
the wants of his fruit trees.-Am. Agri-
culturist.