CULTIVATION OF AN ORCHARD. 



'N The Farming- World of June 12th, W. 

 J. P. says that simple mechanical cul- 

 tivation of the soil may be detrimental, 

 ^^ whereas the seeding- down of an or- 

 chard is most economic and scientific. 

 In a previous sentence he says that fruit 

 specialists do not g-ive reasons for their 

 views in favor of tillag-e. Does it not occur 

 to W. J. P. that he has omitted giving- rea- 

 sons for his views ? He g-ives an example 

 of a larg-e fruit g-rower in eastern Ontario 

 who always keeps his orchard in g^rass, and 

 has g-ood results, but an example is not a 

 proof, for conditions are so various. The 

 writer has an apple orchard on moist, 

 deep sandy loam, that has not been plowed 

 for fifty years, and yet produces excellent 

 crops ; and our friend, Mr. E. C. Beman, of 

 Newcastle, has a pear orchard of similar 

 soil, which he never plows, but allows the 

 grass year by year to remain and decay. 

 But these examples are not for every one to 

 follow, for on a dry or heavy soil, with blue 

 grass sod, for example, an apple or a pear 

 orchard would soon become stunted in 

 g-rowth and barren of fruit. 



It is in years of drouth, to which we are 

 often subject in Ontario, that the greatest 

 injury is done to our apple orchards by lack 

 of tillage. The wood and fruit buds do not 

 fully develop, and the crop for the succeed- 

 ing season will be of small size, and scant in 

 quantity. This is of course an assertion 

 only, but it can easily be proven, both by 

 example and by theory. Now of what use is 

 tillage any way ? We grant W. J. P. that it 

 cannot put fertility into the soil, but we do 



assert that it makes available to the tree 

 roots the fertility which would otherwise re- 

 main locked up. So important do we consider 

 this that we always hesitate to apply manure 

 to any part of the orchard that is not under 

 cultivation, thus exposing the particles of the 

 soil to the action of the oxygen: the air has a 

 chemical action which the study of agricul- 

 tural chemistry shows will (i) set free plant 

 food, (2) promotes nitrification, (3) decom- 

 pose vegetable matter. 



Tillage also exerts a great mechanical 

 benefit, increasing soil depth, and breaking it 

 up into fine particles, easier penetrated by the 

 rootlets of the trees ; but the most import- 

 ant benefit is the conservation of moisture. 

 When untilled the moisture is constantly 

 being brought to the surface by what is 

 known as capillary attraction, while cultiva- 

 tion fines the soil and breaks up this action, 

 thus preventing the rapid escape of mois- 

 ture. 



These are a few of the reasons why tillage 

 of orchards is so strongly advocated by 

 specialists in fruit culture, but they might 

 easily be amplified. The writer started out 

 thirty years ago with the same view as that 

 expressed by W. J. P., even planting a 

 heavy clay field to an apple orchard with 

 the fond hope of thus avoiding the hard 

 work of plowing that field ; but that fond 

 hope was doomed to sad disappointment, 

 and every succeeding year converts him 

 more and more to a sense of chargin that 

 he should ever expect any good results 

 without labor. 



