e year is practically completed by July 15, and fortunately
dry times rarely occur so early. We are, therefore, pretty certain to
get the wood growth, no matter how dry the year, since it would take
several years of unusual drought to prevent it. Of course the wood is
not all that we wish for in fruit trees; the fruit is the main thing,
and to secure the best development of it an abundant rainfall is needed
after the wood is grown. If the rain doesn't come in July and August,
heavy mulching must be the fruit-grower's reliance, and a good one it
will prove if the drought doesn't continue more than one year. After
July the new wood hardens and gets ready for the trying winter. If July
and August are very wet, growth may continue until too late for the wood
to harden, and it consequently goes into winter poorly prepared to
resist its rigors. The result is a killing back of the soft wood, but
usually no serious loss to the trees. The effort to stimulate late
summer growth by cultivation and fertilization is all wrong; use manures
and fertilizers freely from March until early June, but not later. The
fall mulch of manure, if used, is more for warmth than for fertility; it
is a blanket for the roots, but much of its value is leached away by the
suns and rains of winter.

I felt that I had made a mistake in not sowing a cover crop in my
orchard the previous year. There are many excellent reasons for the
cover crop and not one against it. The first reason is that it protects
the land from the rough usage and wash of winter storms; the second,
that it adds humus to the soil; and the third, if one of the legumes is
used, that it collects nitrogen from the air, stores it in each knuckle
and joint, and holds it there until it is liberated by the decay of the
plant. As nitrogen is the most precious of plant foods, and as the
nitrate beds and deposits are rapidly becoming exhausted, we must look
to the useful legumes to help us out until the scientists shall be able
to fix the unlimited but volatile supply which the atmosphere contains,
and thus to remove the certain, though remote, danger of a nitrogen
famine. That this will be done in the near future by electric forces,
and with such economy as to make the product available for agricultural
purposes, is reasonably sure. In the meantime we must use the vetches,
peas, beans, and clovers which are such willing workers.

The legumes fulfil the three requisites of the cover crop: protec