CHAPTER VII 



SUBSEQUENT CARE OF THE FRUIT-PLANTATION 



Now that the property is planted, we may consider 

 what to do with it. The main general practice' is tillage. 

 This is to be the basis of the prosperity of the enterprise, 

 but it will not be necessary to repeat the discussion in 

 Chapter III. 



It is a common opinion with fruit-growers that very 

 heavy growth is opposed to fruitfulness; and yet the 

 plants that are vigorous and strong and make rapid 

 growth from the start are usually the most productive. 

 They are largest, and should have most bearing surface, 

 and the fruit should be large. Just where lies the danger 

 to productiveness of too rapid growth, if the danger exists, 

 is not easy of statement. Very heavy pruning of old trees 

 is reported as not breaking the fruit-bearing habit, but it 

 is commonly supposed to have the effect of reducing the 

 set of fruit. There are probably many conditions and 

 circumstances that modify the results. 



We remember that if the roots are made to strike far 

 into the land by deep plowing for the first few years, it 

 may not be necessary to plow heavy furrows in the planta- 

 tion in later years, except to turn under cover-crops. This 

 can be accomplished even with hard clay land. Two 

 orchards on very hard clay of uneven surface, in six years 

 from the setting of the trees, were in such condition that 

 heavy plowing was no longer necessary, and the spring fit- 

 ting of the land was done with spading-harrows and spring- 



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