56 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



soil SO loose that the moisture cannot rise through it. At the same 

 time this dust is almost air-tight and keeps the air from reaching 

 and licking up the moisture. If you let a crust form (as from 

 rolling or rain or from this dust gradually settling down) then 

 this waste from air-drying goes on. In the apple orchards of 

 New York state this system is carried to perfection. They don't 

 wait until the soil is dried out before plowng in the spring and 

 then leave the land on edge. To begin, they plow early (and 

 they do this, too, for any crop) and immediately roll and harrow. 

 Land thus treated will remain in condition for planting through 

 a spring drouth of sixty days, such as we had this year, in the 

 pink of condition. These orchardists harrow under their trees 

 after every shower to break up the crust, and if there is no rain, 

 every ten days. The result is that they conserve the moisture, 

 which rises sometimes from thirty feet below, and the tree is 

 abundantly supplied regardless of the season's rain-fall. 



I have seen trees only two or three years planted, make aston- 

 ishing growth in light sandy land under this system when the 

 drouth of June and July had burned every thing brown within 

 sight of the field. A side push of the foot removed the dust and 

 uncovered a soil so moist that a handful of it would stay 

 moulded, under even light pressure. This tillage must be fre- 

 quent and thorough, but very shallow. Personally, I have found 

 the Acme harrows best for the purpose. 



Right here a word of warning lest some person should 

 over-do this. By this system of orchard cultivation the trees 

 grow vigorously and continuously from the abundant moisture 

 and nitrification which the tillage induces. If this is continued 

 too late in the season (and it can be continued and the tree forced 

 to grow until October) you will kill the tree by kindness. All 

 tillage must stop by the middle of July and some cover-crop at 

 once be sown. This will take the moisture from the soil, also the 

 nitrogen ; and the trees will at once form the tip buds for winter 

 and have three months for the wood to harden. If this is not 

 done the sappy wood produced will be injured by winter freez- 

 ing. Trees standing in gardens or where potatoes are dug or 

 pigs allowed to "plow" the orchard in the fall are often injured 

 and sometimes killed in this way. 



Now, just a word as to nitrifying, a comparatively new term. 

 Nitrogen, you are acquainted with as the most expensive form 



