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Show II The Standard's U. A. C. Bureau Articles of Interest to Farmers, Housekeepers and Others j Written for The Standard by Experts at Utah's Noted I Agricultural College at Logan I (By Lafayette Schank, Salt Lake City. Student in Agriculture U A. C. j Paper prepared for Class in Horti-I Horti-I culture.) In Utah there are many old orchards which have been neglected for years. , In their present condition they are a f menace to the young orchards in their I vicinity since they harbor pests of all. L descriptions. Their present value is little or nothing since their crops are k small and ihey take up valuable space. ! Can they be made profitable and if so, 11 how? ! The West Virginia experiment stall sta-ll tion took over six neglected and un " productive orchards in that state and I complete renovated them in three ! Ji years' time. Their net profit for three 1 1 years amounted to over ?7000. The six fl! farms cmoprised a total of thirty-sev-i; I1 en acres, making a profit of $185 per acre. Quite profitable, I would say. The same thing can undoubtedly be done In Utah. "We must, however, first decide ;, I whether the trees are worth saving ' 1 or whether they should be pulled out, There are four items to be considered i before making our decision. First. The age and vigor of the 1 trees. Trees up to fifty years are con- ridered good risks. A tree having a I good sound trunk, a good root system ' and main branches is worth saving. I j It is of little account as to the amount 1 1 of dead wood among smaller branches. h j Second. The general stand of the I trees. Where too many are mi'ssing 1 1 the orchard's value is greatly de- j j creased. New trees can be planted r j but their ultimate growth is doubtful. I i The cost of plowing and spraying an jij ' orchard is . considerably more if the I'm trees are widely separated, hence the Iji Importance of having a good stand of I'j i .treeB. I Third. The question of varieties. I flhc block to be renovated should not I ' nrontain too many varieties. All should l j possess good quality. They should be V! salable on any local market. I - Fourth: Amount of insect pests I j The presence of San Jose scale and I .other pests does not in itself present Iii; t serious difficulty. However, coupled i "with other obstacles, it may raise the cost of renovation beyond reason. Having decided to renovate, there arises the question of how to go about it. The work of renovation will usual ly come under the following six heads: 1 Pruning. j 2 Grafting. 3 Fertilizing. 5 Plowing and cultivating. 5 Shade crops. G Spraying. ! Pruning. The work of pruning is usually done first. Each tree will be ( an individual problem in Itself. Some will require complete "dehorning," others severe pruning and still others only moderate pruning. This is a question to be decided by the orchard-ist orchard-ist himself. Trees having high heads ' should be lowered, All dead and dis-1 eased wood must "be removed and the t tops thinned out. Along with pruning should go the work of scraping the trunks of their old bark. This destroys the eggs and cocoons of insect pests and maRes the consequent sprays more effective. An old hoe with the handle sawed off is excellent for this. Grafting. Orchardists sometimes resort re-sort to grafting in order to b'etter tne ' varieties and to change the tree's top. 1 In some cases this practice is worthy of serious consideration by our growers. grow-ers. Especially is this so in the home orchard. Fertilizers. It may be advisable to fertilize the old orchard in this reno-, valion process, depending upon the fer- tijily of the soil. Under our condi-, tious barnyard manure is the best for ! this purpose. It should be spread over the outer two-thirds of the roots and plowed under. Shade Crops. These may be grown to advantage in some cares where ; there is sufficient irrigation water. The jelovers, vetches, rye, etc., make j good shade crops. By plowing them under the soil is furnished plenty of : humus. Cultivation: If there is not sufficient suffi-cient water available to raise alfalfa, clover, etc., in the orchard it will probably prob-ably be, necessary to resort to clean cultivation. The land snould be plowed and gene over several times with a |