Time to Plow, Prune Orchards, Says W.R. Hoots, County Agent, Dec. 2, 1921

Plowing Land, Pruning and Spraying Orchards

By W.R. Hoots, County Agent

All land to be cultivated next year should either be plowed in the fall or early winter and as deep as possible. Fall and winter plowing is always profitable on heavy or clay land.

Large quantities of plant food especially potash and phosphoric acid are stored in clay subsoil. If this subsoil is turned up and subjected to freezing and thawing through the winter the plant food is liberated and becomes available for use by the plants.

Also, many diseases and insects harbor or live over in the filth that is usually on land which has not been plowed. When the land is plowed, many of the diseases and insects are destroyed by exposing them to freezing and thawing.

Then in the spring, fall plowed land will be mellow and easily prepared for planting and will hold moisture better than land plowed immediately before planting. Spring is usually the rush season for the farmer and he seldom has the time to properly prepare his land for planting. Very little leaching out of plant food will occur on land that is clay or has a clay subsoil.

Why not prepare a few acres of land well for corn and not plant so much? Make more corn on less acres of land and then plant or sow a few acres of soy beans. Soy beans will make more feed to the acre than corn and then leave the land in better condition than before the crop was planted. An average yield of corn will take out of the soil about $15 worth of plant food and put nothing back. Also it will pay well to lime all land in this cunty and especially for soy beans and clover.

Pruning and Spraying Orchards

Now is the time to begin orchard work. Pruning and spraying can be done at any time between now and late spring, but fall is the most leisure time and spring the most busy time with the farmers. If you have good varieties of fruits it will pay you well to prune and spray. We can sell all good fruit of standard variety but pruning and spraying Johnson Winter, Wolf River, Ben Davis and similar varieties is a waste of time. Better top work with Stayman, Winesap or Stark Delicious if the trees are young. If old, better cut them out and plant young trees.

Dig the dirt from the trunk of the trees and look for borers. A fly lays the egg on the trunk of the tree in the summer, the eggs hatch and the little worms begin to bore into the tree. If let alone, the borers will soon kill the trees. Take a soft wire and run in the burrow and kill the worm without cutting, when possible.

I will be glad to assist any one who is interested in orchard work. If you have an orchard to prune and spray, let me know and we can get the neighbors together and give some demonstrations and watch the results.

From the Southwide Baptist News-Record and Ridgecrest Reporter, published weekly at Marshall, N.C., Dec. 2, 1921