Commercial Fruit Growing 17 



previously raised on a seed bed from a sowing made in March. They 

 should be planted 3 ft. by 2 ft. 6 in. on the square, so that the horse hoe 

 can be worked both ways. Another portion can be planted in June with 

 Savoys, also previously raised in a seed bed from a sowing made in April. 

 These should be planted 2 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft. and planted on the square. 

 A remaining portion can be planted also in June with Coleworts, planted 

 18 in. by 18 in. on the square, the seed to be sown at the same time as 

 the Savoys. 



These green-stuff crops, if the horse hoe and the man hoe be kept well 

 at work among them during the summer, will smother any weeds that 

 may have remained from the autumn cleaning, excepting such deep rooters 

 as thistles, bindweed, or coltsfoot, and even these will be much weakened. 



The Coleworts and Savoys will be off in November, and the Brussels 

 by Christmas, thus leaving plenty of time to plant the trees, which a 

 careful man will buy in the summer, and have heeled-in in the autumn. 

 Of course if the holding is 

 one on which horses are not 

 used, then all the cleaning 

 must be done by forking and 

 picking. 



Now comes the question, 

 how shall the land be pre- 

 pared for the fruit? Here 

 rival schools assert their dif- 

 fering theories. Shall it be Fig. 321,-Clod Crusher (Cambridge Roll) 



deep cultivation or shallow? 



Shall it be by plough or spade, and if the latter shall it be digging, 

 double digging, or trenching? He who proposes to grow fruit for a living, 

 and cannot draw upon unlimited supplies of money, must discard elaborate 

 theories beloved of experts who do not spend their own money. Doubt- 

 less double digging or two-spit trenching does make a splendid deep tilth 

 for the trees and bushes to go into, but either will cost anything from 

 12 to 16 an acre, according to the nature of the soil and subsoil to 

 be dealt with, and the trees and bushes may not show appreciation of the 

 extra expense. The object of cultivation is to move the soil thoroughly, 

 bringing fresh particles up to the action of wind and weather; to keep it 

 open and pervious for water to reach the roots and rootlets; and so that 

 the micro-organisms that constitute fertility may secure oxygen and be 

 free to multiply. 



If the soil is never moved except to the depth of a few inches, the 

 bottom becomes hard and impervious, like a pan, and the fertility be- 

 comes, like beauty, only skin deep. It stands to reason that, except for 

 such crops as prefer a hard bottom, the deeper the soil is moved and the 

 more thoroughly its particles are broken up, the more the forces we call 

 fertility are increased and the freer they are to work; and in times of 

 drought the more moisture will be held by the finely separated particles 



VOL. ITT. 32 



