The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-09
THE CULTIVATION OF ORCHARDS.

Nursery stock should not be grown
IN orchards.
Watch a sod orchard. 1t will begin
to fail before you know *.
Tillage should be begun just as soon
as the ground is dry enough in spring.
If orchards are TO be made profit
able, they must receive as good care
as other crops.
Good drainage, natural or artificial.
is essential to success. Trees are i'm
patient of wet feet
Well-drained lands are dryer in wet
spells and moiSter in dry spells than
other lands. They can be worked
earlier in spring.
Good Village increases the food-sup-
ply of the soil and also conserves its
moisture.
Trees should be made to send their
roots deep into the soil. in order to
for+tify themselves against drought.
This is done by draining the soil and
by blowing the orchard rather deep.
This deep blowing should begin the
very year the trees are set, and it
should be continued every spring I'M
TIL the habit of the trees is estab-
Iished.
Moisture is retained in the upper
lage. by means of which the surface
of the land becomes a. mulch for the
soil beneath.
This tillage should be repeated as
often as once in ten days throughout
the growing season. which extends
from spring until July or August.
Village should not exist for the pur-
pose of killing weeds Weeds have
taught the most important lesson in
agriculture, to be sure, but the school
master should now be able to retire.
Late cultivation may be injurious by
inducing a late growth. At all events,
it can be of small utility when the
tree begins to mature and rains be-
come frequent. This season of respite
gives the grower the opportunity of
raising a. green manure and of adding
fertility to his land at trifiing expense
and with no harm to his trees.
Fall blowing may be advisable for
farm crops. but it should generally
be discouraged in orchards. The land
IN orchards should be left compact in
the fall, and it is advisable to cover
it with some close heritage.
Only cultivated crops should be al
lowed in orchards early in the season.
Grain and hay should never Be
grown.
Even hoed or cultivated crops may
rob the trees of moisture and fertility
If they are allowed to stand above the
tree roots.
Sod is sometimes allowable in apple
and standard pear orchards, but new
err in other fruit plantations; but even
then it should be pastured closely
fed at the same time. the land will
fare better.
Probably nine-tenths Of the apple
orchards of New York state are in
sod, and many of them are meadows
Of course they are falling.
The remedy for these apple failures
IS to cut down many Of the orchards.
For the remainder. the treatment is
cultivation, fertilizing, spraying-ths
trinity of orthodox apple-growing.
In general. level culture is best. The
modern cultivators and ilarrows make
such cultivation easy.
Harnesses with no projecting names
nor metal turrets should be used in
bearing orchards. Those requiring no
whifhetrees are also useful.
Potash is the chief fertilizer to be ap-
piled to fruit trees. particularly atNr
they come into bearing.
Phosphoric acid is the second i'm
portant fertilizer to be applied arti-
ficially to orchards. 1t may be got as
plain high-grade super phosphate dis
solved South Carolina rock, in the
bone fertilizers. and perhaps in Thomas
Stag. Of the plain superphosphates.
from 800 TO 500 pounds may be applied
to the acre.
Nitrogen promotes growth. 1t should
therefore be used with some caution,
for orchard trees should be grown for
fruit rather than timber.
Barn manures are generally more
economically used when applied to
farm crops than when applied to or
chards. yet they can be used with good
results. particularly when reiuvenating
old orchards.