The Cultivation of the Fruit-Farm 143 



There is no other way of securing humus in the 

 soil. 



It is therefore on schedule time that the cultiva- 

 tion of the vineyard must be done. Delays here 

 are not merely dangerous, — they are fatal. As you 

 ride through the Lake Shore Valley inspecting 

 fruit-farms in July — the best time to judge their 

 condition — ^you will discover that orchards and 

 vineyards — indeed all crops, in soil like an ash- 

 heap and filled with himius — deep, moist soil — 

 are always of a dark green color ; the growth of wood 

 is abundant as their canes, well-fruited, will attest. 

 The presence of weeds does not always show neglect 

 of the orchard or vineyard. It is the hard, baked 

 soil, the old stubborn sod, the wire and quack- 

 grass, the goldenrod and the milkweed, the sour- 

 dock and the sorrel at which you take warning. 

 If the ground beneath the grape-row is green with 

 chickweed you may know that the soil is rich and 

 mellow. Chickweed is potash growing and has no 

 superior as a friend to the fruit-grower. It never 

 is seen on poor soil. Were I asked to name the 

 simplest, surest test of a well-fed soil, I would ask, 

 Does it grow chickweed? July is rather early 

 for this little friend, but if you have cultivated your 

 vineyard aright, it comes of itself. In September 

 the soil seems surcharged with its tiny seeds (Who 

 ever saw one?) eager to germinate, to cover your 

 land with a thick, green cover, which will be a 

 winter blanket protecting your plantation. And 

 there are other weeds which are good signs, — as 



