ORCHARD CULTIVATION 51 



farm land without buying another acre. The best 

 farmers recommend a gradual deepening of cultiva- 

 tion, say at the rate of y* inch to i inch each year, 

 down to the lowest practicable depth. Just what the 

 lowest practicable depth may be will vary greatly, of 

 course, in different cases ; it has been determined only 

 in a very few instances anywhere in this country. It is 

 safe to say that a farmer should use his fields to a 

 depth of something more than a foot, no matter what 

 the soil formation, and that in favorable soils he should 

 go down to a depth of 16 to 18 inches, or even to 

 2 feet. 



Deep cultivation seems, at first thought, to be im- 

 practicable in an orchard. This matter will be dis- 

 cussed in a subsequent paragraph; but just here it 

 should be remarked that no crop works deeper than 

 fruit trees. They require a soil, therefore, opened to 

 the lowest practicable depth. The deepening of the 

 soil for crops of fruit trees is largely a matter of 

 preparation before planting, but it is a matter, too, 

 which cannot be forgotten whenever the subsequent 

 cultivation is talked of. 



2. Cultivation promotes drainage. A good farm- 

 ing soil should be in such a condition that it will dis- 

 pose of any ordinary rain without allowing any of 

 it to pass off as surface drainage. Surface drainage 

 on plowed fields is wasteful and dangerous. It is 

 wasteful because it means just so much water lost, 

 much of which might have been saved for the use of 

 the crop. It is dangerous because it washes away 

 the best soil and much of the fertilizer. It carries 

 away the farmer's capital and his stock in process of 

 manufacture. 



