76 Cultivation of the Soil. 



the orchard is only top-dressed, the application in autumn is 01 

 great importance, that the soil may be soaked in winter or spring. 

 If ploughed in it should be done in spring, after the manure has 

 remained all winter on the surface. 



When to Mamtre Orchards. Inquiry is often made as to the fre- 

 quency and amount of manuring or cultivation for trees. The 

 answer must be : aft according to circumstances. The question 

 again recurs : how shall we know what our soils need ? The answer 

 is: observe the results of growth. An examination or analysis of 

 the soil will be of little use. But the trees will tell their own story. 

 If the soil is so rich that they make annual shoots of two or three 

 feet or more in length, without any cultivation or manuring at all 

 (which, however, is rarely the case), then it will be needless to give 

 additional care. The annual growth is the best guide to treatment. 

 There are very few apple or other orchards which, after reaching a 

 good bearing state, throw out annual shoots more than a foot or a 

 foot and a half long, and many not half this length. The owner 

 may lay it down as an unalterable rule, that when his trees do not 

 grow one foot annually, they need more manuring or cultivation, or 

 both. By observing the growth he can answer all questions of the 

 kind referred to, without difficulty. 



Management of IVestern Orchards. Lewis Ellsworth, one of the 

 most successful and intelligent fruit-growers in Illinois, says that 

 the loss in fruit-trees in that State within the last three years, is 

 millions of dollars that it is attributed to the cold winters and dry 

 summers. But he asserts that to a great extent, this result has 

 arisen from their standing unprotected in a soil underlaid with a 

 retentive clayey-loam subsoil, which characterizes most of the prai- 

 rie land. He has adopted the practice of ridging his land, by 

 repeated ploughings, commencing at the same ridges and ending at 

 the same dead furrows ; and where nursery-trees were formerly 

 thrown out by freezing, after ridging they stand throughout the 

 winter without injury, and make a better growth in summer. He 

 recommends the ridging system for all orchards, each row of trees 

 being placed on the centre of the ridge. 



We have no doubt that draining would lessen the effects of severe 

 winters on fruit-trees in other regions than the West. 



Arrangement to facilitate Cultivation. The following is an 

 arrangement of kinds of different sizes, into rows for cultivation 

 both ways with horse-labor. The larger sorts are in wide rows, as 

 explained on page 72. Fruits which are stung by the curculio 

 are planted at one end, and when the fruit is forming, pigs and 



