The Oakley eagle. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1901-1908, 1906-07-05
Culture of Orchards.

| consider good and thorough cul
ture of the utmost importance in grow
ing fruits successfully. The first thing
TO do is to get the ground in the best
possible condition before setting Out
the trees. and then frequently stir
ana loosen the ground during the
growing season. This is not only nee
essary during the growing season be
fore the trees come into bearing, bui
especially during the fruiting the
ground must be frequently stirred and
Kept pulveriZed in order to have the
best results when gathering the fruit
BY Keeping the ground in a loose,
frlable condition, we countoract, In a
measure, the effect of drouths and
enable the fruit to keep on growing
and to some extent prevent ii from
dropping. | noticed this last season as
| heard numerous complaints OF ap.
pies falling from orchards not cult
waited, while those that were thor
oughly cultivated held their fruit and
continued to grow during the hot, dry
season, also leaving the trees in
better condition for crop the next
season. Another condition we will
also notice between orchards Guilt
waited and those not cultivated the last
few years, and one | think we will
fully appreciate, is this-the orchards
that have been down to grass for
number of years and have been bear
ing fairly good crops of fruit, without
cultivation, will be found to be run
ming down, while those which have
peen thoroughly cultivated are i'm
proving every year. This is gratifying
to us and looking at our orchard we
know we have been we'll repaid for
all the work we put on it.
If the trees are not doing as well
as we think they ought to, we can
improve their condition by judicious
fertilizing. 1t does wonders on young
trees. Last year I planted several
acres in apple trees, which did not
have as good a chance as the rest of
the orchard, being set in an old
strawberry patch, which could not be
cultivated before the last of June after
the crop was gathered. To help the
trees some bone dust was distributed
around them and hoed in and those
trees have passed the others and have
made more satisfactory growth. BY
thorough cultivation l don't mean two
or three plowings during the season.
The ground must be kept clean and in
a loose, fine condition all the season.
If 1t rains every week the crust must
be broken after the rains. Sometimes
In a very dry season the thing to do
is to cultivate every other day in order
to retain the moisture. If the ground
becomes packed after a rain and it
turns hot and dry the crops will likely
be cut short, but If the ground is thor
oughly pulverized they are enabled to
withstand the drouth better would
FAR rather have smaller acreage well
taken care of and well cultivated than
a large acreage half taken care of,
and in the end the returns would be
larger.
II experimenting is desired, take
some peach trees and cultivate a part
of them two or three times and culti-
vate the other part so as to keep the
ground around and between the trees
clean and loose, then in the fall of the
year notice the difference IN the
growth of the trees and an object
lesson will be learned that will not be
forgotten. | can not raise apples sue
cessfully by planting the trees and
then putting the ground down to grass
after few years cultivation. A few
trees treated in this manner on my
place have never borne any apples fit
for market, while those well cultivated
all the time have produced paying
crops. Thorough cultivation and Judi
cious fertilizing are the only roads to
successful fruit-growing that | know
of. If there are any short cuts they
are unknown to me. If the trees are
in a healthy, thrifty condition when
they set their fruit and we can con
tinue to keep them so until they ma
ture their crop, we will rarely be dis
appointed in their Yield. S. Under
wood, Johnson Co, Ill.