41 

 ORCHARD CULTIVATION. 



It is thoroughly recognised nowadays that without cultiva- 

 tion, and thorough and continuous cultivation, successful 

 orcharding is out of the question. The effects of cultivation are 

 as follows: (i) The aeration of the soil; (2) the conservation 

 of moisture; (3) the destruction of weeds. 



Each of these grounds for cultivation has a vital effect on 

 the crop, the aeration of the soil is as important as moisture. 

 Soil which is allowed to remain hard and compact gets positively 

 dead. \Ye have seen many instances where old roads in cer- 

 tain classes of soils have been ploughed up, and which would 

 grow nothing for two or three years, in fact, until life was again 

 put in the soil from thorough aeration. 



The conservation of moisture is effected by continual cul- 

 tivation in this manner. It is a well-recognised fact by all agri- 

 culturists that moisture received into the soil either by artificial 

 application or by natural means for a certain depth down, rises 

 up again by the capillary attraction of the sun's rays acting on 

 it. The process is a continual one of pumping going on from 

 below through the cells in the soil, which re-adjust themselves 

 after each moving of the surface soil for this purpose ; there- 

 fore, if the cultivator is kept going during the dry season, the 

 capillary cells are being continually broken, and it takes some 

 little time for them to readjust themselves and allow the under 

 moisture to be drawn up through them. In this way the 

 moisture is locked up in the ground, and the only manner of es- 

 caping is through being drawn up by the roots of any tree or 

 plant, and being evaporated off through the leaves. 



It is for this reason we mention the third advantage of cul- 

 tivation, to wit, the destruction of weeds, as every weed growing 

 is drawing up moisture from below and giving it off into the at- 

 mosphere. You yourself can readily see this almost any time 

 in your orchard, especially in citrus trees which have been badly 

 irrigated. Take a very hot day, and at midday you will see 

 the leaves drooping and looking as if the tree needed water, 

 whereas early next morning you will find the same tree, which 

 in the meantime has not had a drop of water, looking perfectly 

 fresh. Why? Simply because the hotter the sun the more 

 rapid the evaporation going on through the leaves. On a very 

 hot day, unless there is perhaps an excess of moisture in the 

 soil, the evaporation will be going on at a quicker rate than the 

 roots can take it out of the soil, hence the dropping of the foliage, 

 whereas in the cool of the evening evaporation slows off, and by 

 next morning nature has balanced itself, resulting in a healthy 

 normal condition of the foliage. 



