GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF ORCHARDS. 145 



which will yield bountiful crops of fruit for an age after he 

 has passed away, must begin right, plant right, train right, 

 and cultivate right. Then his reward will be as certain as 

 the vicissitudes of the seasons. 



Stirring the Soil in Orchards. Many young orchards 

 that are growing where the soil is thin, having a compact 

 substratum beneath, are often root-pruned to their serious 

 injury when the ground is ploughed. Young fruit-trees 

 seldom have any roots to part with. Consequently, every 

 rootlet that the plough severs tends to retard the growth 

 of the tree. But where the soil is so porous that most of 

 the roots strike deep, and spread out below the range of 

 the plough, that implement may be employed for working 

 the soil. None but a careful and intelligent teamster should 

 be permitted to work around fruit-trees with any imple- 

 ment ; and for several feet around every tree, the plough 

 should not be permitted to run more than two inches deep. 



The entire soil where an orchard is growing should be 

 either mulched, or cultivated, or hoed over so frequently 

 during the growing season, that all vegetation will be kept 

 completely subdued. Indian corn, potatoes, turnips, car- 

 rots, or beans, may be cultivated between the rows every 

 year for ten years. But the ground round about each tree, 

 as far as the branches extend, should be left entirely free 

 from vegetation. A few inches in depth of the surface 

 should be kept stirred with hand-hoes, or horse-hoes, or har- 

 rows. Great care should be exercised in keeping all imple- 

 ments from wounding the bodies of young trees. A care- 

 less booby wiU frequently do many dollars' damage with 

 the whiffletrees, plough, or harrow. A spade should not be 

 used around fruit-trees to the injury of the roots; A spad- 

 ing-fork is better, as the tines will crowd the roots aside, 

 seldom breaking eveji the small ones. Then, as the hard 

 soil is broken up with fork-tines, removed from the roots, 



7 



