Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1870 — Why Orchards Decay. [ARTICLE]

Why Orchards Decay.

A correspondent of the Valley Farmer says orchards have died or become poor from these causes: , 1. The exhaustion of the soil from the constant crops of apples; from the blowing away by the wiDdof the leaves of the tree which nature designed to feed the soil on which the tree 6tands; by the crops of grass, grain, or roots constantly taken from the same ground and little return of substance to it. f 2. Another means of their destruction has been in whipping the trees with poles to remove the apples. And still another cause was the pasturage among them. 3. To restore them: —lf any were left worth restoring, man must cease to crop the ground under them, and must manure them with vegetable mold, denying leaves, limr, wood a-dies, and sail. A compost formed of these substances would !«• excellent': hr one formed by soeppudaand refuse Slops, chipdirt, turf, etc., well rotted. Then trim them of all dead those that cross and gall each other, and suckers that feed upon trunk or umbs, not necessary for a crop.