23 



After a few years it becomes impossible, 

 in most plantations, to cultivate in 

 more than one direction. This leaves 

 rather more land to be hoed by hand, for 

 there is a narrow strip down each row of 

 trees and bushes which cannot be moved 

 in any other way. 



Digging. 

 The longer cultivation can be done 

 mostly by horsed implements the better 

 for the grower's pocket, but in most plan- 

 tations this becomes impossible a few 

 years after planting, the exact time de- 

 pending on the crops and spacing adopted. 

 Of course, if the plantation were composed 

 of standard or half-standard trees only, 

 horse work could go on indefinitely ; but 

 most growers plant bush fruit or dwarf 

 trees between the standards, and then it 



roots, particularly under plum trees. 

 Before the war, men thoroughly accus- 

 tomed to this ^ork in Kent used to under- 

 take it at prices varying from £1 to £2 

 per acre; but few growers in other dis- 

 tricts could get it done at that price. 

 Obviously, with wages at their present 

 high level, the operation costs nearly 

 double as much. Thus it is not surprising 

 that growers avoid it where possible. In 

 years when a dry autumn favours late hoe- 

 ing, so that the plantation is left nicely 

 clean before winter sets in, digging may 

 be omitted, though this often means that 

 the first spring hoeing will be extra hard 

 and expensive. It is seldom that an 

 orchard can be left more than two, or at 

 most three years without digging, if it is 

 to be kept cultivated at all. Even if weeds 

 could be kept under entirely by hoeing, 



Tlie Fruit Farm Plough (Plan), for Ploughing right up to the butts of Trees. 



is not long before growth becomes too 

 dense for horses to be used without doing 

 harm. When this happens there is nothing 

 for it but to hoe the entire surface four or 

 five times during spring, summer and 

 autumn, and dig in winter. 



Digging, or rather forking over, is 

 generally done with three-tined hop spuds, 

 the spits being turned over away from the 

 worker. It can hardly be done too shal- 

 low, provided that weeds are properly 

 covered. Deep digging injures many 



digging would still be needed every two 

 or three years to loosen the surface after 

 the trampling associated with pruning, 

 fruit-picking, spraying and other opera- 

 tions, also to cover in manure. 



After the bush fruits or other orchard 

 fillers have had their day and been 

 grubbed, leaving only the standard or half- 

 standard trees, horse cultivation can 

 usually be adopted again, thus doing away 

 with most of the hoeing and digging. 

 Practically the only exception to this is 



