CHAPTER VI. 



THE SECONDARY AND INCIDENTAL CARE OF THE 

 FRUIT PLANTATION. 



THE methods of tilling the fruit plantation have 

 been fully considered in Chapter III., but since the 

 subject is so important and so commonly misunder- 

 stood, it may be well to repeat two or three of the 

 advisory suggestions at this place. There are many 

 persons who fully believe that clean tillage is the 

 proper treatment for an orchard, but who are de- 

 barred from putting the matter into practice because 

 of the great amount of labor which they conceive to 

 attach to it. As commonly practiced, it is certainly 

 true that the tilling of orchards is one of the most 

 laborious duties of the farm, but this is because the 

 accustomed methods are wrong or bungling. The 

 orchardist rarely has the land fully under his control. 

 The essence of the whole matter is to get the land 

 in ideal condition whilst the orchard is young, and 

 then to practice surface tillage (with only occasional 

 plowings) after the trees begin to bear. The use of 

 modern implements makes it easy to keep the land 

 clean without resorting to the high trunks of the 

 old-time orchards. If the roots are made to strike 

 deep into the land by deep plowing for the first 

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