|34 CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



The use of tractors, which has recently become very common, has 

 greatly facilitated orchard and vineyard plowing and these motors 

 are of incalculable advantage in promoting thorough tillage of fruit 

 lands. 



It is undoubtedly better practice to plow earlier, when the green 

 stuff gets a good start, but is still not too high to turn under handily. 

 In this practice the weed stems are less woody, and they easily decay 

 and act as a fertilizer. Where early plowing is practised, it is usual 

 to plow again when the second growth of weeds reaches the proper 

 state in the spring. When two plowings are given, the earth is 

 usually thrown away from the trees in the first plowing, and re- 

 turned toward the trees in the second plowing. But this order is 

 sometimes reversed in situations where rainfall is heavy and the soil 

 retentive, so that the dead furrow between the rows may act as a 

 surface drain to carry off surplus water, which is thus prevented 

 from standing around the tree roots. Dead furrows and hollow 

 middles may be avoided by plowing around a row until within two 

 . or three feet of the next row on each side. Then plow two or three 

 furrows around those rows and go to the next one for another big 

 land. This leaves dead furrows close to alternate rows. Cross 

 harrowing levels the dirt in the rows by dragging it into the dead 

 furrows. Next year these rows get the big lands. In all modes of 

 plowing it is desirable that before the summer heat comes, the sur- 

 face be leveled as completely as possible. 



Too much stress can not be laid upon the importance of plowing 

 when the soil is in good condition and not otherwise. To disregard 

 this is bad enough in all soils, but it is a grevious mistake to work 

 any of the clayey soils when they are out of condition. If too wet, 

 they are puddled by the plow and dry down in hard clods, impene- 

 trable by air, and even resist water itself for a long time. When 

 clods are thus formed, it may require long effort to bring the soil 

 back to a good friable condition. The cultivation of adobe is one of 

 the problems of California agriculture. The more refractory it is, 

 the more particular care is needed to take it when it is in proper 

 condition to work. To work it when perfectly dry is simply im- 

 possible, and if it is plowed when too wet and sticky, it becomes 

 hard, lumpy, and altogether unmanageable. The condition which 

 favors best results by tillage must be learned by experience. 



Another mistake apt to be made when the orchard or vineyard 

 is but one of the branches of a mixed farm, is to put aside the plow- 

 ing until all the field work is done, and in some seasons the soil in 

 the orchard has become so dry that it turns up in large clods which 

 are afterwards partially reduced by the harrow, but never put in 

 the fine tilth which should be secured for the retention of moisture 

 and otherwise to encourage the growth and productiveness of the 

 tree. 



Breaking up Hardpan.Those who advocate the use of the plow, 



claim several advantages for it. The chief is that more thorough 



Ith can be secured. In most, but not all soils, there is formed by 



cultivation an artificial hardpan at whatever depth the implement 



