36 



buds. If the sort of tree is an upright grower, cut to an outside bud 

 if it has a spreading habit cut to an inside bud. The second season, 

 allow two shoots i;o start from each one of the parent branches, and 

 treat as before. By the third year, you will have got a handsoino 

 symmetrical tree, and your after pruning is meant to keep it so." 



So much for the practical advice of three practical men 

 given in a country which of all others is most closely like 

 our own in climatic conditions. 



40. The modern orchard does not, like the garden of Eden, 

 cultivate itself. It demands a full share of the attention 

 lavished upon cereal crops. The condition of openness and 

 aeration with free passage of moisture through it and away 

 has to be maintained. Where the area set out to fruit trees 

 is very large, as in California, the plough and harrow are 

 the implements greatly relied on for bringing the tilth to a 

 finely pulverized state. Their use involves considerable 

 difficulty in working among the trees, and here, where we 

 set out our trees as close as possible, they are not likely to 

 come into vogue. Our vineyards are often worked with 

 the spade, and our conservatism may perhaps make us 

 mlhere to that method till we learn to employ the " culti- 

 vator >J altogether. This excellent tool is quite competent 

 to cut up the soil to a depth of eight or ten inches, with 

 the assistance of a steady mule. Its special advantage is 

 that its chisel-shaped teeth open the soil thoroughly without 

 materially disturbing its general evenness, thus avoiding 

 the unhandiness of the plough furrows, all of which have 

 to be turned back again and worked to a level with the 

 harrow. The whole of the ground between and among the 

 toees must be kept in an open, worked condition, not only 

 because it would otherwise harbour weeds and other inter- 

 lopers which would night and day draw from the suil that 

 which of right belongs to the trees, but for another and 

 more important reason. An open pulverulent tilth at the 

 -surface is the best preventive of evaporation from the 

 underlayers in which the roots lie and perform their func- 

 tions. As soon as a hard continuous surface-crust is formed, 

 as, for instance, by drying out after irrigation, or after a 

 beating rain, the uninterrupted capillary attraction exerted 

 by the interstices of the soil-particles draws the moisture of 

 'the lower strata up to the heated crust, where it evaporates 



