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Wisconsin State Horticultural Society / Annual report of the Wisconsin State Horticultural Society for the year 1910
Volume XL, Part II (1910)
Richardson, C. L.
The Stanley district, pp. 104-106
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Moore, J. G., et al.
Orchard tillage session, pp. 106-117
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Page 106
106 WISCONSIN STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. very fine; practically all of the crab apples that are grown in the northern part of the state, the Peerless, the Dudley, Russett, Malinda and a few others. In all, I presume there were prob- ably thirty-five varieties. ORCHARD TILLAGE SESSION. Topic. "Shall we advise clean cultivation until July 15th to be fol- lowed by cover crops for young orchards (five acres or moreT, or may we consistently recommend a system of cropping for five to ten years after planting? If the latter, what crops, what rotation, how many years may crops be grown, and what portion of the land may be cropped?" PROF. J. G. MOORE. Orchards of five acres or more are commercial plantations so that our question refers to handling a commercial orchard. As the apple is the chief fruit in this state, it also presumably ap- plies to apple orchards. Two points immediately arise in con- sidering the question: the result on the trees, and the cost of bringing the orchard up to the producing period. From the stand point of the tree alone, I believe that a system of culti- vation with cover crops most advisable for the welfare of the orchard unless great care is exercised in the cropping. It is also essential that an amount of plant food equivalent to that removed by the crop be returned to the orchard soils. The bringing of the orchard from planting to fruiting as economically as possible, will in the majority of instances, practi- cally preclude the clean culture-cover crop system up to the time at which the orchard begins to give returns from the fruit produced. The question then resolves itself into "What is the best practice in the cropping of a young commercial orchard?" The length of time during which a young orchard may be cropped successfully, which means without injury to the trees, cannot be definitely stated. It will depend primarily upon the age at which the trees come into bearing. I believe it to be a mistake to grow other than fruit crops in the orchard after it has reached the bearing period. It will be seen that the length of I I
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