90 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



DEEP AND SHALLOW CULTIVATION.— THE TIME TO CEASE THE CULTI- 

 VATION OF ORCHARDS. 



Old Missioif, Jan. 29, 1873. 



Club met pursnatit to adjournment, Mr. C. P. Avery in the chair. " Cnlti- 

 yation of Fruit Trees," continued. 



Mr. Curtis — I have a subject to place before you to think about, and we 

 mav at some future time take it up; and that is, how deep is it necessary to 

 cultivate? The inference would be from remarks made at previous meetings 

 that two inches was deep enough. Now, it may be that this shallow cultiva- 

 tion is good and it may not be; not having thought much about it previous 

 to these discussions, I am not prepared to say. You are aware that they had 

 this subject under discussion in the American Institute Farmers' Club, and 

 the statement was made that in a certain county in New Jersey, it was the 

 practice to give corn but very shallow cultivation, and they got very good 

 crops. Those who advocated deep cultivation considered there must be some 

 mistake, and a committee was appointed to go there and examine into it and 

 make a report. They stated that the soil in that county was naturally under- 

 drained and that it is unnecessary to cultivate as deep there as in other soils, and 

 that where the soil was not underdrained thoroughly, deep cultivation was 

 necessary. Now, a great deal of our soil is like that county in New Jersey, 

 loose, porous, and well underdrained, though I think there is a misapprehen- 

 sion in regard to this in places here. I find on my place that by digging from 

 18 inches to two feet I come to a hard-pan. Generally on our uplands this 

 will not be reached by the plow, but it sometimes is, and it is found to be very 

 hard and stiff. I think that where this hard-pan is, two inches of cultivation 

 would not be enough to furnish air and moisture. I am inclined to think that 

 you would not find, in a drouth, much moisture below where the ground is 

 stirred. If this is so, would it not be better to cultivate deeper, even if we do 

 break some roots? Suppose we follow this system — let the cultivator run 

 shallow near the tree, but further oif let it run deep and break whatever roots 

 are in the way. 



As I said before, I have not given this subject much thought, and offer these 

 ideas more as suggestions than assertions, — but I believe that with eight inches 

 depth of cultivation, drouth will do us no injury. I can raise a corn crop 

 without a drop of rain from the time it is planted until harvested, by frequent, 

 thorough, and deep cultivation. 



Mr. Avery — I think the surface roots should not be broken. Nature keeps 

 her roots near the surface. You will notice the trees in the forest, where they 

 tip over, the roots are all within a foot or eighteen inches of the surface. 



Mr. Curtis — I always feel pity for such trees. I have been where trees 

 would tip over, but they do not generally do so here, they pull out. Now, I 

 would submit that our apple trees are not natural trees. If we were to sow 

 apple seeds and let them grow thickly and as they would, those would be 

 natural trees; but the way we raise apple trees is different. We take a small 

 section of a bearing tree and splice it on a young root, maJce our trees in that 

 way, and that is not natural. Nature does not do business that way. Nature 

 keeps her soil shaded and mulched for moisture. In cultivating trees we must 

 compensate in some way for the want of this shade and mulching. If we keep 



