37s BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Hale: You can mulch if you till, occasionally; but tillage is much 

 better. One acre thoroughly tilled is better than two that is not tilled. 

 Of course, you can terrace it. 



Mr. Shoemaker: How do you plow among your low, hea(^ ti'ees? 



Mr. Hale: Of late years, where it is not too stumpy, we use the Cali- 

 foa-nia Senior Cutawa3\ With that your horses are in the middle of the 

 row away from the trees and the machine is close to the tree. It will turn 

 over clover first thing in the spring. It will not turn under the clover 

 after it has had its growth, or after it has attained a growth of six 

 inches. 



Question: How close do you plow to the trees, and how deep? 



Mr. Hale: The question of depth is a local one. We plow close up to 

 the tree. A row of sod close to the tree is a delusion and a snare. 1 

 plow and harrow nearly 2,500 acres of orchard every year and turn over 

 every inch of the ground. 



Question: What about the roots of the trees? Does it not cut them ? 



Mr. Hale: If you have continually cultivated from the time you 

 planted the trees they will have learned to keep down out of the way. You 

 can not plow that way in a neglected orchard. If you have mulched for 

 years the roots are near the surface, and these should not be cultivated in 

 this way. 



Mr. Johnson: How do you thin the fruit? 



Mr. Hale: By hand. We have not as yet discovered any other way. 



Mr. Davis: We have peaches that ripen in October. Can you sum 

 mer prune those trees while the peaches are on? 



Mr. Hale: Yes; for the time the peaches stop gi-owing the wood has 

 stopped growing. 



Question: Would your system of cultivation apply to pears and 

 chen-ies ? 



Mr. Hale: I would have to answer that from faith rather than actual 

 knowledge. I have no cherry orchard and no pear orchard now. My ob- 

 servation leads me to conclude that, taking the country over, the fruit 

 growers who are good tillers of the soil are the ones that are making 

 money. Did you ever hear of a farmer becoming bankrupt through exces- 

 sive tilling? The man in any community who has good crops of any kind, 

 in dry seasons as well as in wet, is pretty sure to be the one who tills his 

 soil the most and best. 



