CHAPTER X 



PREPARATION FOR ORCHARD PLANTING 



The two essentials in preparing land for trees or vines are deep 

 and thorough cultivation, and provision for drainage, unless the sit- 

 uation is naturally well drained. Drainage will be considered in 

 connection with irrigation in another chapter. In this place, how- 

 ever, by way of emphasis, it may be remarked that high land is not 

 necessarily well drained, although the general feature of the sur- 

 face may be an incline, nor is low land necessarily wet, although the 

 surface may be apparently level. For horticultural purposes the 

 drainage of the land must be considered on the hillside as well as in 

 the valley, for reasons which Avill be more fully set forth in the 

 chapter on drainage. 



The preparation of land for fruit planting should begin with 

 grading. In irrigated orchards this is essential for the equal dis- 

 tribution of water. Even where irrigation is not anticipated, it is 

 of decided advantage to smooth down hummocks and fill sags which 

 are likely to collect water in the rainy season. As has been shown 

 in Chapter III, this can usually be done on most California soils 

 without danger of uncovering a sterile subsoil. Some intimation of 

 the method of grading is given at the close of Chapter VII. In prep- 

 aration for the irrigated orchard, and irrigation is now widely em- 

 ployed even in regions where formerly rainfall was the sole reli- 

 ance, it is important that accurate grading should be done and the 

 use of the surveyor's level and grade stakes will be found very de- 

 sirable. All moving of soil should precede the general plowing. 



For the planting of orchard or vineyard the land must be put in 

 as good tilth as possible, and extra expenditure to secure this will 

 be amply repaid in the after-growth of the trees and vines. If prac- 

 ticable, it will be all the better to have the process of preparation 

 begin a year before the trees or vines are to be set. This is true 

 either with newly-cleared land, as has been described, or with old 

 grain or pasture land which is to be used ; leaving the surface rough 

 during the winter, facilitates the access of air to the lower layers 

 of the soil, and in a certain sense may be said to sweeten and enliven 

 it. Following in the furrow with a subsoil plow is very desirable, 

 either at the first plowing or later. Such treatment of old grain 

 land breaks up the old hardpan,* which has probably been formed 

 by years of shallow culture. The preparation should continue 

 during the following summer, and can often be made both thorough 

 and profitable by the growth of a summer "hoed crop," the culture 

 of which will kill out many weeds and secure good pulverization of 

 the soil. If no summer crop is grown, the land should be kept in 

 cultivation by plowing the weeds under as long as the surface soil 



*In this connection the term means "plow-sole." Treatment of true hardpan will be 

 described in the next chapter. 



