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CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



orchard tractors. Recently disk plows and harrows have become 

 very popular. In several of the leading fruit districts there are 

 plows made in the local shops which are patterned to meet the differ- 

 ent soils prevailing. Which is the best plow is a question which can 

 not be answered ; it must be determined by local conditions, and the 

 best way to get information is to consult the experienced cultivators 

 of the locality and to watch the effects of one's own operations. 



Avoiding Injury to Trees and Vines. The great problem is to 

 use the plow so as not to injure the trees and vines. Injury to the 

 roots is one ground on which those who advocated the banishment 

 of the plow from the orchard and vineyard based their opposition, 

 as will appear more fully presently. It is the usual practice to run 

 the plow shallower when approaching the stem of the tree or vine, 

 and this is easily done when using a riding plow or a two-horse walk- 

 ing plow or a tractor outfit between the rows and finishing up near 

 the trees with a single-horse walking plow. The injury to the bark 

 of the tree or to the vine stump and to the roots is thus minimized. 



Makers of the special orchard and vineyard plows have recently 

 made them adjustable so that the plow will work either side of the 

 central line of draft, and these improved tools have rendered obsolete 

 the early contrivances for accomplishing the result with common 

 field plows. 



Extension of disks and of spring-tooth harrows are often made 

 by attaching the parts to the ends of a central piece in such a way 

 that the horses walk in the centers and the cultivators work under 

 the low branches and very near to the stems of the trees. These are 

 chiefly used with citrus trees whose foliage and fruits are permitted 

 to grow very near to the soil surface. 



All modern implements offered for work in the orchard or vine- 

 yard have adjustments to enable careful cultivators to avoid injuries 

 to the bark of trees or vines, and home-made devices for protection 

 are no longer required still intelligence in workmen is indispens- 

 able. 



SUMMER TREATMENT OF ORCHARD AND 

 VINEYARD 



Where the orchard or vineyard is plowed twice during the win- 

 ter, the land should remain after the first plowing as the plow leaves 

 it. The moistening and aeration during the winter have good effect 

 upon the soil both chemically and mechanically. 



If but one plowing is done, when the chief rains are supposed to 

 be over, there must be full effort put forth to reduce the soil to good 

 tilth and to level the surface as much as possible. This is done by 

 harrowing with one of the several improved harrows which are now 

 generally available and found very effective. They act in cultivat- 

 ing, clod crushing, and leveling, in a most satisfactory manner. They 

 are too well known to need description. Each has its advocates and 

 its adaptations to certain soils. As with plows, so with harrows and 

 cultivators, the best for one soil may not be the best for another, and 

 local inquiry among experienced fruit growers will be the best guide 



