. Annual report of the Agricultural Experiment Station. Cornell University. Agricultural Experiment Station; Agriculture -- New York (State). vating the orchard, it might be necessary to repeat the work within the next forty-eight hours. The surface mulcli must be maintained. There is a distinct difference hetioeen the status of an orchard when viewed as a farm crop^ and a field of wheat or corn.— The apple tree is planted in a certain place ; it is fixed and innnovable and is dependent for sustenance on the food within reach of its roots. Tlie situation may remain unchanged year after year. T
. Annual report of the Agricultural Experiment Station. Cornell University. Agricultural Experiment Station; Agriculture -- New York (State). vating the orchard, it might be necessary to repeat the work within the next forty-eight hours. The surface mulcli must be maintained. There is a distinct difference hetioeen the status of an orchard when viewed as a farm crop^ and a field of wheat or corn.— The apple tree is planted in a certain place ; it is fixed and innnovable and is dependent for sustenance on the food within reach of its roots. Tlie situation may remain unchanged year after year. The tree may con- tinue to starve or to revel in high living. The drain on the soil's store- house of food increases year after year and is emphatically aug- mented when bearing age is reached. These conditions make the tree at once a hard boarder and a helpless boarder. The wheat plant has only a year of existence. ' If the conditions are favorable it pro- duces flowers and seed, and the stem with the grain is gathered ; but the root is left in the ground to compensate in a measure for the plant-food used in perfecting the kernel. Farmers manure wheat ground every yeai*. Should not fruit trees receive treatment equally generous ? Do not the^ trees make an annual draft on. the plant-food of the soil ? Fruit trees are in theraselves a sufficient crojyfor the ground on which they stand.—This is es- pecially true after the tree comes into bearing. We may deviate somewhat from the rule in the case of apple trees which are planted thirty-five or forty feet apart. In cases of this kind other crops may be grown in tlie interspaces. What type of crop to grow is an important question. Shall we grow some- thing cultivable, or a cereal, such as wheat or oats, that occupies the entire surface of the ground \ It may be said that the soil moisture is saved somewhat in proportion to the area of surface 391. 17.—An orchard tree six years planted. ^ Tilled, 2)rimed and Please not
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