The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-07-01


great Northwest and help us to con-
quer this country by grubbing out its
sage brush plains and by grubbing
out the stumps from the logged-off
lands where they can build themselves
comfortable homes. l look for great
things to come to us from their fair.
Mr.. w. S. Hamlin, Langley, Wash,
has asked number of questions about
clover in a young orchard. l wrote
him a brief answer some time ago,
but promised to treat of the matter
more fully in these columns. There
are fruit growers who advocate what
they call the "sod method" of grow
ing young orchard Others oppose
this method and recommend the Gull
tivation of the soil all the time. Now,
l do not belong to either class. l
would not seed down young orchard
but cultivate it few years and then
seed to clover or some other legume.
| have been giving my reasons for
the growing of legumes in the orchard
and expect to continue to do so.
legume is plant that bears its seeds
in a pod like peas, beans, vetches,
clover and alfalfa. Many people who
have not carefully studied the matter
do not know that clover and alfalfa
grow their seeds in pods, but they do
all the same.
The reason these kinds of plants
are so much more beneficial when
growing in an orchard than the other
kinds of plants like wheat, oats, bar
ley, timothy, red top, ETC., is not the
simple fact that they have pods, but
the fact that this class of plants have
certain kinds of bacteria working on
their roots These minute vegetable
organisms, known as bacteria, have
the capacity of taking nitrogen from
the air and storing it up in the soil.
Nitrogen, in the available form, is
what makes plants vigorous. Not nj
trogen alone, for all plant life is de-
pendent on ten or eleven ingredients
but most of them exist in the soil in
sufficient quantities for all time. But
without an abundant supply of nj
trogen plants will look feeble and take
on yellow, sickly appearance. Nj
trogen is soonest used UP and most
costly to replace. By growing legumes
we get the supply from the air which
is about four-ffths nitrogen. But no
plant can use this abundant supply of
nitrogen in the air till it is somehow
turned into nitrates. Now for any
one to say that clover is injurious to
an orchard is but to expose his ignor-
ance of such matters. 1t must be
remembered that any plant will use
more or less of the moisture in the
soil, and clover is no exception to this
rule. So it might be that clover would
use up too much of the moisture in
the soil and thus rob the trees of what
they need If, however, the moisture
is abundant and not easily exhausted,
then clover will be beneficial. Cutting
the clover and piling it around the
trees will help to conserve the moist.
ure and will be beneficial Don't be
afraid of clover in your orchards. If
the clover is cut for hay and removed
you deplete your soil of potash and
phosphoric acid. These important
matters will be constantly treated in
The Ranch.
I am in receipt of letter from f.
M. Donaldson, Meacham, Oregon, in
which he says: 1--WE want to set out
a commercial orchard and hope to
learn from Mr. Walden's writings how
to do it." Before time to plant trees
in the fall l will again take up the
question of the varieties of apples
best to plant in the Northwest. These
matters have been treated in these
columns, but there are many new sub
scribers and many old ones with good
'forgetteries" so we shall keep on
teaching many of our lessons over and
over again.