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A Wrong Idea Of Inter-planting

Categories: Fruit Growing

What forage plant can I grow in a newly planted orchard? The soil is on

a gently inclined hillside - red, decomposed rock, very deep, mellow,

fluffy, and light, and deep down is clayish in character. It cannot be

irrigated, therefore I wish to put out a drought-resisting plant which

could be harvested, say, in June or July, or even later. I find the

following plants, but I cannot decide which one is the best: Yellow soja

> bean, speltz, Egyptian corn, Jerusalem corn, yellow Milo maize, or one

of the millets. What do you think?



Do not think for a moment about planting any such plant between orchard

trees which are to subsist on rainfall without irrigation. Your trees

will have difficulty enough in making satisfactory growth on rainfall,

and would be prevented from doing so if they had to divide the soil

moisture with crops planted between them. The light, deep soils which

you mention, resulting from decomposed rock, are not retentive enough,

and, even with the large rainfall of your region, may require irrigation

to carry trees through the latter summer and early fall growth.







What Slopes for Fruit?







I want to plant some apples and berries. One man says plant them on the

east or south slope of the hill and they will be ripe early. Another man

says not to do that, for when the sun hits the trees or vines in the

morning before the frost is off, it will kill all the blossoms, and as

they would be on the warm side of the hill they would blossom earlier

and there will be more frosts to injure them. I am told to plant them on

the north or west side of the hill, where it is cold, and they will

blossom later and will therefore have less frosts to bother them, and

the frost will be almost off before the sun hits them in the morning.



Fruit is grown on all slopes in our foothills, depending on local

conditions. On the whole, we should choose the east and north slopes

rather than the east and south, because there is less danger of injury

from too great heat. In some cases what is said to you about the less

danger of injury from frosts on the north and west slopes would be true.

All these things depend upon local conditions, because there is so much

difference in heat and frost and similar slopes at different elevations

and exposures. There can never be a general rule for it in a State so

endowed with varying conditions as California is.



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