Cultivation 49 



During the early part of the season, while the 

 weather is still cool, the cultivation of the whole of 

 the orchard is not quite so essential as it is during 

 the summer months. If cover crops intended for 

 hay, such as wheat or oats, are grown in between 

 the rows of young trees, these should occupy strips 

 of not more than 6 feet wide, so that a two-horse 

 cultivator can be driven along each side of the rows 

 of trees. After such cover crops are mown, which 

 will be either in October or November, the whole 

 orchard should be cultivated or disc-harrowed, and 

 kept well-worked and free from weeds for the rest 

 of the season. 



Where the land cannot be stirred by horse-culti- 

 vation, such as near the stems of trees and vines, 

 the land must be kept loose and the weeds destroyed 

 with the hoe. Young trees should receive special 

 cultivation close to the tree, as the roots are not far 

 from the stem, and the forked hoe, which does not 

 cut the roots, if by accident it is inserted too deeply 

 into the soil, is a very useful implement for this 

 work. To ensure satisfactory growth in a young 

 orchard too much care cannot be exercised in this 

 work of close cultivation, as every weed is a pump 

 drawing the moisture into the air that the young 

 tree requires for its needs. 



One of the greatest mistakes often made by new- 

 comers on irrigation settlements is in the lack of 

 sufficient cultivation. How often are not newly- 

 planted orchards met with with but a 2 feet to 3 

 feet strip of .cultivated land along each side of the 

 rows of trees, while the rest of the land is given 

 over to the production of a* crop of. luxuriant weeds, 

 which rapidly pump the moisture out of the land, 

 and by creating a dry belt alongside the cultivated 

 one, rob the latter of most of its moisture. Under 

 such circumstances it is impossible for the trees to 



