CHAPTER VII 



ORCHARD IMPLEMENTS 



IT is a great convenience in cultivating an orchard if a man 

 can have just the right implement for each particular part in the 

 work and for every special combination of conditions. That is 

 one advantage which the large orchard has over the small one. 

 With only a few acres of orchard to care for the owner feels as 

 though he ought to get along with the smallest equipment possi- 

 ble unless he has use for the implements in his other farm work. 

 It is possible to care for an orchard with only a plow and a 

 harrow, in fact he might even cut out the plow if his harrow were 

 of the disc variety. But with a large orchard, the owner feels 

 more free to add to his equipment, and if the orchard is suffi- 

 ciently large he can justify quite an extensive array of imple- 

 ments. This is a doctrine which, like the doctrine of a fairly 

 large list of varieties, it is easy to carry too far, and any man 

 should keep the list down low enough so that he at least has room 

 for every implement in the tool shed. 



But liince there are a great many orchard implements on the 

 market and since slightly varying conditions may make a differ- 

 ent one more effective than any other, it seems worth while to 

 discuss a few of the principal types. 



Plows. As already suggested it is not always necessary to 

 plow the orchard, but it frequently is, and when one has to plow 

 he wants a good implement. There are about four things to be 

 considered in selecting an orchard plow : First, the draft ; second, 

 how close it can be run to the trees ; third, how much danger there 

 is that it will damage the trees; and, fourth, its effect on the 

 furrow slice, that is, how thoroughly it will pulverize the land as 

 it turns it over. Any orchard plow should have a fairly abrupt 

 mold board in order to pulverize as well as to invert the furrow 

 slice. The type of plow which merely inverts the furrow slice 

 without breaking it up at all will make a pretty looking field, 



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