MAKING THE ORCHARD. 57 



be cultivated thoroughly and often the first year. 

 It is not enough to go in with a corn cultivator as 

 near to the row as we can and leave the trees 

 uncultivated. This is of very little good, but it is 

 all very many young orchards get. Even if fol- 

 lowed by the hoe it is still poorly done in most 

 instances. If the weeds are cut off at the ground 

 surface and the ground not thoroughly worked and 

 kept mellow it will bake and dry up. There is a 

 very large extent of country where not one year in 

 ten is there sufficient rainfall to mature a crop of 

 corn without resorting to artificial means to supply 

 or retain moisture in the ground. Supposing that 

 we carefully cut or pull every weed in our corn- 

 fields but never introduce a cultivator ? Cultivat- 

 ing answers a double purpose; it not only destroys 

 the weeds which are great absorbers of moisture, 

 but by breaking and disarranging the conformation 

 of the soil it acts as a mulch and prevents for a 

 time, the evaporation through an infinite number 

 of infinitesimally small tubes. The more finely 

 pulverized the soil the better the mulch, or, as it 

 has been called u dust blanket." I have never yet 

 seen it so dry in summer that I could not in a well 

 kept field find earth moist enough to pack in my 

 hand'a few inches down. 



One of the best tools to handle an orchard with 

 is a disc harrow, but if a small tree has been used 

 it can generally be handled with the corn cultiva- 

 tor by straddling it. This is one of the many 

 advantages of a small tree. The second year such 



