28 

 ORCHARD CULTIVATION. 



It is thoroughly recognized nowadays that without cultivation 

 and thorough and continuous cultivation successful orcharding is 

 out of the question. The effects of cultivation are as follows : 

 The aeration of the soil ; (2) the conservation of moisture ; (3) 

 the destruction of weeds. 



Each of these grounds for cultivation has a vital effect on the 

 crop, the aeration of the soil is as important as moisture. Soil 

 which is allowed to remain hard arid compact gets positively dead. 

 We have seen many instances where old roads in certain classes of 

 soils have been ploughed up and which would grow nothing for 

 two or three years, in fact until life was again put in the soil from 

 thorough aeration. 



The conservation of moisture is effected by continual cultiva- 

 tion in this manner, it is a well recognized fact by all agricull urists 

 that moisture received into the soil either by artificial application 

 or by natural means for a certain depth down, rises up again by 

 the capillary attraction of the S"n's rays acting on it. The process 

 is a continual one of pumping going on from below, through the 

 cells iii the soil, which readjust themselves after each moving of 

 the surface soil for this purpose, therefore if the cultivator is kept 

 going during the dry season, the capillary cells are being conti- 

 nually broken and it takes some little time for them to readjust 

 themselves, and allow the under moisture to be drawn up through 

 them, in this way the moisture is locked up in the ground, and the 

 only manner of its escaping is through being drawn up by the 

 roots of any tree or plant, and being evaporated off through the 

 leaves. 



It is for this reason we mention the third advantage of cultiva- 

 tion, to wit, the destruction of weeds, as every weed growing is 

 drawing up moisture from below and giving it off into the atmos- 

 phere. You yourself can readily see this almost any time in your 

 orchard, especially in Citrus trees which have been badly irri- 

 gated. Take a very hot day, and at midday you will see the leaves 

 drooping and looking as if the tree needed water, whereas early 

 next morning you will find the same tree which in the meantime 

 has not had a drop of water looking perfectly fresh. Why ! simply 

 because the hotter the sun the more rapid the evaporation going 

 on through the leaves. On a very hot day unless there is perhaps 

 an excess of moisture in the soil, the evaporation will be going on 

 at a quicker rate than the roots can take it out of the soil, hence 

 the drooping of foliage, whereas in the cool of the evening 

 evaporation slows off, and by next morning nature has balanced 

 itself, resulting in a healthy normal condition of the foliage. 



We have heard many people say that grass and weeds conserve 

 moisture in soil, and insist on its being so. They state truly 

 that if you take a very weedy piece of land, and on a hot day pull 



