The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-09-01

Passing through lheSe places recently could not help but notice and admire their system of managing their orchards Each had it's lands under complete con trol Hare is one of the great secrets of success-to begin early and keen inc matter well in hand Never let an or- chard~ get so far gone in weeds and brush that you have to conclude that big turning blow Is the only thing with big turning blow is the only thing with which you can do anything Then. an- other vehy important matter is never to allow the blow, harrow or harness to rub the trees and bark them or break them in cultivation.
 Some light crops may be grown to profit in the first years of the orchard; but such crops as small grain of any kind, corn or cotton, should never be planted in a young orchard. But some light crop. such as vines, tomaties, cantaloupes, cucumbers, stock peas or beans can be used to great advantage and profit, as such crops as these are an advantage in shading the soil, thus holding the mois- ture and retaining in the soil the plant food Then these plants act as sub soilers to a certain degree by sending their roots down into the subsoll and loosening 1t up and making more of the plant food available. This is especially true of the tomato. beans and peas.
 Where Argument Arises.
 I am well aware of the fact that many orchardists are not going to agree with me in the above statement, and l have had many to argue with me that 1t does not in the least retard the growth of the trees to grow cotton or corn be- tween the trees for the first three years after they are set, but a test of the matter will show the foolishness of such an argument. The only argument in the case is simply this: In the south, where cotton growing has been the order for years, it is almost a death struggle for the farmer to give up his best lands for the growing of anything else, and in many cases even after he has been per- suaded to plant trees he begins to reason and think how much cotton he might have grown upon that land. He thinks the trees are small, and why can he not grow cotton even yet between them and get a paying crop? The farmer in the corn belt reasons the same way, and so we see in the south fine young or chards retarded in their growth by being planted to cotton, and see up in the corn belt the same mistake made by crowding corn in between the trees.
 ANOW d iilllc COilliuOll St1Stt t liiilt 6OOO reasoning, will correct this error Let the grower ask himself few questions. or I will ask them here. You are going to plant commercial peach orchard. What is your object? Do you not want to get on the market with your crop at the very earliest date possible? Certainly you do. Then why check the growth of your trees and set them back one or two years by planting these crops among them Do you not know that these crops, corn and cotton or small grain, are all greedy feeders, both of moisture and of plant food, and that they rob the trees just as much of both as it takes to pro- duce them? In this way the trees are checked in growth and the very object for which you have planted them Is de- feated to a great extent. The cotton plant does not rob the trees or soil of as much moisture or plant food as does corn or small grain-that is it does not require so much of either to produce 1t, but the system of cultivation being a clean one. exposes the soil directly to all hard rains and hot summer suns, and the sun and heat are great dissipaters of nitrogen, the very element so much needed in the growth of young trees. For this reason, if no other, cotton should not be grown In young orchards. Corn Is slower in it's action, but the results are just as fatal, as 1t requires even more moisture and plant food to produce a crop of corn than it does crop of cot ton. The greatest objection to the cot ton, as stated is in the clean cultivation, leaving the soil subject to washes, and so bare there is a constant loss of both nitrogen and moisture.
 Three Important Elements.
 Now, reason again. The leading ele- ments in all fertilizers for plant food are nitrogen. phosphoric acid and potash Nitrogen Is by far the most expensive of the three and by far the most essen tial in the early years of the growth of trees. This being true, I ask is 1t a wise policy to buy nitrogen to hurry the growth of the trees, and then rob the trees of this nitrogen by the planting of other crops among them?
 But some one may ask, what about the other crops you recommend? Do they not need nitrogen also, and will they not also rob the soil of this so much needed element? Our answer Is no; for peas, beans and tomatoes will draw from the atmosphere and store in the soil more nitrogen than they consume, while all the vine crops mentioned will shade the
 
 the nitrogen and moisture, and at the same time their roots act as subsoilers. making and setting at liberty more plant food. The only test that is necessary to prove this position is to plant two plots of trees side by side, cultivate one in corn, grain or cotton, and the other treat as here recommended, and the question will be fully answered as to which Is the correct method.
 So l would again say to the reader If you are planting a commercial orchard, and if you wish to get even with your best competitor, never plant anything among your trees that will rob them of the plant food and moisture they need, and so manage the cultivation from the start that you can keep the matter we'll in hnd.
 After the trees are grown 1t may be well to adopt a system of mulching for cultivation I will have more to say of this later. I want to make this so plain that all may succeed who engage in this profitable industry.
 My highest ambition is to leave behind me monuments to my memory-not cold marble, but orchards of fruits, fine farms and higher state of cultivation, fine stock, great fields of grass. fine pastures, cattle on a thousand hills, and great creameries turning the milk from the cows into ice cream and butter for the food of man.
 I aP glad to know that we do not have to wait until we are dead and
 Frsl-. T~s..