STEPS IN PREPARATION 45 



three or four years thereafter. Other similar cases might be 

 cited, all tending to show the value of this previous treatment. 

 Yet the writer is not prepared to say that he would defer plant- 

 ing for a year in order to give this preliminary treatment. In 

 fact he knows from experience that he probably would set out the 

 trees and attempt, by better care and more fertilizer, to bring 

 them along satisfactorily. By using good care all along the line 

 the trees can be made to grow very satisfactorily in most cases. 



The final summing up of the case would therefore be: Get 

 one year's previous preparation if you can, but life is too short 

 and orchard growing too long an investment, to warrant one 

 in delaying a whole year, except in rare cases. 



Fall Plowing. — If we cannot have a year's preparatory treat- 

 ment we usually can have the land plowed in the autumn, and 

 unless the soil is in the best possible condition this is very de- 

 sirable. It is particularly good on land which is a trifle heavy 

 or in sod. But when the land has been fall plowed do not make 

 the mistake of replowing it in the spring. It is not necessarj- 

 in the first place, and if there was any trash on the land, or if it 

 had a tough sod, there will be no end of vexatious experiences 

 when it comes to setting the trees and cultivating the land. Let 

 the sods and trash stay underneath where they belong and where 

 they will decay. Of course where the field to be set has too much 

 slope, fall plowing is out of the question on account of the wash- 

 ing from winter rains, but in every other case it ought to be 

 done. And this plowing may be done at auy time before the 

 ground freezes up solid. The fact that the soil is too wet for 

 good plowing does not matter so much in the autumn as it would 

 in the spring, because the freezing during the winter will pre- 

 vent auy damage which might otherwise occur from working the 

 soil when too wet. Heavy soil, so wet that it would be absolutely 

 ruined for several years if plowed in that condition in the spring, 

 may be fall plowed without injur}^ 



Steps in Preparation. — The actual preparation of the land 

 for setting would consist then, first, of this plowing, done either 

 spring or fall as the circumstances will admit. This should be 

 followed by a thorough working with the disc harrow and this 



