56 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



wind, sunlight and froist, and' other elements that break up 

 the plant foodi. The nitrogen, phosphoric acid and other mate- 

 rials are locked up in .the soil aind it is only iby the process of 

 cultivation that we can liberate that plant food so that it is 

 available for plant life. When the orchard is thoroughly har- 

 rowed with a cutaway harrow, the next implement is a spring 

 tooth harrow. In about ten days we put the spring tooth 

 harrow over it a couple of times, and after that it is fine enough 

 for a section harrow. We go over our orchards every eight to 

 ten days, and always after a rain, to break up the soil and 

 have it in a fine condition. 



My first reason for cultivation is to break up the plant food. 

 My second reason is to give a good physical condition to the 

 soil. If the soil is coarse, and in lumps, the plant food is not 

 available, and the more you fine the soil the better chance it 

 gives the Httle roots to do their w^ork. If you dig up an apple 

 tree after one year, you will find the little fibres going out in all 

 directions. Those are root hairs. It is by that process that 

 the plant gets its life. The plant food is taken in by the plants 

 in a very dilute condition. It takes an enormous quantity of 

 water to carry the plant food to the plant and if the soil is as 

 fine as it possibly can be made then the elements of plant food 

 are placed in close conjunction with the little feeding roots 

 and the plant has a very much better chance to make a good 

 growth than if the land was all clod. Every man who goes out 

 in the spring to farm has this idea wnth him, — that he must 

 manipulate the orchard so that he w^ill make the most money 

 possible, and in order to do this, you must practice improved 

 methods ; and as you study the question you will find that the 

 finer the soil is made the better chance the tree has of having a 

 good seed bed, and the seed bed applies as well to the apple tree 

 as to the growing crops. 



Then the conservation of moisture is a very good thing. I do 

 not know the exact percentage of moisture in the apple, — per- 

 haps 80 or 90 per cent. When we are selling apples we are 

 selling a good deal of water. In order to get that water into 

 the apple crop you must cultivate the soil. Any man who has 

 had any experience knows that when a field is hard and flat, in 

 the summer time, you will find it dry away down. But go into 

 your corn fields and potato fields and orchards that have been 



