Subsoiling. 155 



loosens the subsoil and allows it to retain its mois- 

 ture better in times of drought. An attempt should 

 be made to bring the land in the various parts of 

 the orchard into conditions as uniform as possible, 

 so that the same tillage and treatment may be ap- 

 plied to the entire area. All hard and "sour" spots 

 should receive particular care in drainage and subju- 

 gation, or they should be left outside the plantation. 



Lands which have hard and impervious subsoils 

 should be plowed very deep before trees are put 

 upon them ; and in some cases, as for dwarf pears, 

 it may pay well to use the subsoil plow. It should 

 be borne in mind, however, that the subsoil plow is 

 not always a fundamental corrective of hard subsoils, 

 for it does not remove the cause. The subsoil may 

 gradually settle back into its old condition, and land 

 cannot be completely subsoiled after it is planted to 

 trees. In the case of strawberries, raspberries, and 

 other short -rotation fruits, the subsoil plow may be 

 used at frequent intervals; but in lands which are to 

 be planted to orchards, the tile drain is a more per- 

 fect ameliorator of the subsoil than the subsoil plow- 

 is. Yet even the one subsoiling may serve a use- 

 ful purpose in sending the roots downwards at the 

 start, and this advantage will be the greater when 

 the superfluous water removes itself rapidly from the 

 hard-pan. 



The soil in which orchards are set should always 

 be in a thorough state of cultivation at the time the 

 trees are planted; that is, whether in sod or in hoed 

 crops, the land should be in good tilth or physical 



