vating I use a
fourteen-tooth Peerless harrow each side of the row, and cultivate the
rest with two-horse cultivator; then use a good sharp hoe close to the
trees. Corn is the best crop to raise among young trees, as it acts as a
windbreak and a partial shade. After an orchard gets to bearing, seed to
red clover. I would change from corn to clover eight or nine years after
setting.

Windbreaks are essential. I would have them on the south and west sides
of the orchard, at least. I would make them of evergreen, Osage orange,
or mulberry. I would not plant black walnut, cottonwood, or maple, as
they are injurious to apple trees. Plant peach trees between the apple
trees; they grow fast, and protect the apple until large enough to stand
the winds. The best thing I have found to keep rabbits, mice, etc., off
the trees is a protector made of five lath two feet long, woven with
wire; they can be left on summer and winter, as sunlight and air can
pass through to the bark and keep it healthy and keep the sun from
scalding the bark; it also keeps the borers and the whippletree from
doing much damage; they can be left on until the trees outgrow them. I
cut out all limbs that are liable to rub each other at any future time,
and all limbs that are liable to split down as the tree gets older; I
also trim high enough to let a small horse walk under the limbs. I take
off the back pad while working among the trees, so it will not be
catching on the limbs; I think that it pays, and is beneficial. I have
not thinned the fruit while on the trees. My trees are planted in
alternate rows of different kinds, so I cannot tell what is best, blocks
or mixed. I use all the barn-yard litter broadcast that I can get, and
wish I had more. I shall plow under a good crop of red clover about
every other year, and seed again the same year to clover, as I think it
beneficial; I would do the same on all lands that I have yet tried. I do
not let horses or cattle over one year old pasture in the orchard. I let
calves and small pigs have access to the orchard, as they will eat up a
great many wormy apples that drop, and help keep down the weeds. I think
it advisable to pasture with young stock, and that it pays.

My apple trees are troubled with canker-worm, twig-borer, and
leaf-crumpler. The codling-moth troubled my apples some last year. I
have not tried spraying as yet. I have found borers in a few trees that
were out in the grass near the fence. I pick