B CULTIVATION WITHOUT PLOWING j^j 



are others of California invention and manufacture which 

 very marked local adaptations, and almost every fruit region 

 in California has some embodiment of local inventive genius in the 

 rm of implements of tillage. 



The secret of success in handling the heavier soils in spring 

 working is to secure as perfect surface pulverization as possible 

 without compacting the soil. Light soils need a certain amount 

 of firming after plowing, or else there is too free access of air and 

 too great drying out. For these and other reasons, the grower 

 has to study his soil and learn from observation the methods which 

 succeed best with it. The practice which gave success under cer- 

 tain conditions might not be well adapted under other conditions. 

 The use of the roller is a striking example of this fact. In some 

 orchards the roller is a benefit, in others a decided injury. Its 

 chief effect is compacting the surface layer, which is only desirable 

 on very coarse open soils. The long-tooth harrow accomplishes 

 a very marked compacting of the soil to the depth it reaches and 

 often settles the lower layer too closely and causes it to run 

 together too solidly if rain follows. The modern cultivators, clod- 

 crushers, disk-harrows, etc., are superior in effect, each in the 

 soil to which its action is most desirable. 



After working down the soil after plowing, the cultivator is 

 relied upon to kill the weeds, break up the crust which may form 

 after spring rains or after irrigation, and to prevent the compacting 

 of the surface layer of the soil from any causes. 



CULTIVATION WITHOUT PLOWING 



There are orchards in California which have not been plowed 

 for years in some cases the plow has not been used since the 

 trees were planted. Instances of this kind are to be found both in 

 irrigated and unirrigated land. It depends largely upon the me- 

 chanical condition and disposition of the soil whether the practice 

 will give satisfactory results. It can not be trusted on land prone 

 to develop hard-pan, as has already been considered, and yet the 

 term "cultivation" has taken such a wide range in this State, and 

 the tools have reached such efficiency, that there is not as much 

 difference as formerly between the plow and the cultivator, except 

 that the former turns the soil and the latter stirs without turning. 

 For some who oppose the use of the plow, use a chisel-tooth cul- 

 tivator, cutting to a depth of eight inches in the spring, but at 

 other times of the year they are not more than half as deep. 

 This treatment would tend to dispose of hard-pan. However this 

 may be, and what the special nature of their soils, there are fruit 

 growers, both in northern and southern California, who have for 

 years trusted almost wholly to the cultivator, cutting to a depth 

 of three or four inches, and keep their orchards throughout the 

 year almost in the same state of tilth, never allowing a weed to 



