en loads per acre--are the most effective means
of doing this. The best crop immediately to precede trees is clover.
Sometimes an application of one thousand five hundred to two thousand
pounds of lime will help to insure a stand of clover and at the same
time improve the physical condition of the soil. Fall plowing is a
good practice on the medium loams and more open soils, but on the
heavy clays spring plowing is to be preferred, as when plowed in the
fall these soils puddle and become hard to handle. Care should always
be taken to keep the orchard well furrowed out as standing water is
decidedly inimical to satisfactory tree-growth. Tile draining is
frequently advisable.

INTERCROPPING.--The question of intercropping a young orchard is one
to be carefully considered. As it is often practiced it is very
injurious to the orchard, but it is possible to manage crops so as to
be of very little harm to the trees. While the practice may be
inadvisable in many commercial orchards, yet on a general farm we
should by all means think that it was the right thing to do. Certain
facts must be remembered, however, which have a bearing on the
subject.

Trees are a crop, as much as corn or grass. If we grow a crop between
the tree rows we must remember that we are double cropping the land
and that it must be fed and cared for accordingly. There is absolutely
no use in setting an apple orchard, expecting it to take care of
itself, "just growing," like Topsy, as numerous dilapidated and broken
down orchards bear ample testimony. If orchards are to be cropped
this must be judiciously done with the trees primarily in mind.

The best crops to grow in a young apple orchard are those requiring
cultivation, or which permit the cultivation of the land early in the
season. Field beans, potatoes, and garden truck of all kinds, as small
vegetables, melons, etc., are among the very best crops to grow in the
young orchard. Corn will do if it does not shade the trees too much.
Small grain and grass should not be used, especially where they come
up close to the trees. These crops form too stiff a sod and use up too
much moisture. A mulch of straw, cut grass, or coarse manure will help
to correct this condition somewhat when these crops must be used.
After cultivation until midsummer buckwheat makes a satisfactory
orchard crop in some cases.

A regular rotation may be used in the young orchard to advantage when
a space is left next the trees to