148 THE APPLE CULTURIST. 



trees that they can bend to the ground. That the plough- 

 man may have complete control of his plough, there should 

 always be a gauge-wheel beneath the forward end of the 

 beam, so that the ploughman may lift his plough entirely 

 out of the ground at pleasure. Also, when the plough ap- 

 proaches a tree, the ploughman should lift on the handles, 

 gauging the depth of the furrow at pleasure, near the trees. 

 If roots appear near the surface, let the plough run only 

 two or three inches deep as it passes the trees. When 

 horses and whiffletrees are used, the whiffletrees should not 

 be more than twenty-two inches in length, and the driver 

 should exercise great care to prevent the injurious contact 

 of the whiffletrees with the tender trees. If there is no 

 sod on the ground, it is an excellent practice to do the 

 ploughing near the trees with one horse, or with two horses 

 geared ad tandem one forward of the other. So long as 

 trees can be bent sideways, one person should be employed 

 to bend the trees away from the team, and to elevate the 

 outer end of the whiffletree while passing each tree. Oth- 

 erwise, young trees will be seriously damaged by whiffle- 

 trees. A slight touch with a whiffletree will frequently 

 remove a piece of bark as large as a man's hand. Such 

 wounds will be a great injury to the growth of young 

 trees, unless they are covered immediately with a heavy 

 coat of grafting-wax. To say nothing of the injury to 

 fruit-trees by wounding the smooth and straight stem, it 

 looks bad to see young trees stove up by unskillful and 

 heedless ploughmen. We have in mind a young farmer 

 who cultivated a large young orchard for more than ten 

 years ; and not a scar could be found on one of the trees. 

 No one except himself was permitted to manage a team 

 or to handle an implement near those trees. 



Muzzles for Teams. No team, whether ox, ass, or horse, 

 should ever be permitted to come near young trees of any 



