47 



abundant there, a sub-soil plough should most certainly be 

 obtained), following by a good harrowing, and, later, several 

 stirrings of the soil by the running through of a cultivator. 



When the following dormant season for fruit trees comes 

 round (the only proper season, by-the-bye, to remove deciduous 

 trees), get your trees, and have them planted at once, presuming, 

 of course, your soil is in condition for planting. When the soil 

 has been carefully packed around the roots, and the hole has 

 been refilled within nine inches of the surface level, empty a 

 couple or more buckets of water into that hole, and when all the 

 water has sunk out of sight, and not till then, have the hole filled 

 up with the remainder of the perfectly dry soil, which has 

 previously been taken out. Every tree should be similarly 

 treated. 



We would suggest, to facilitate watering, that a low sledge 

 on two runners be made, on which could be stood one or two 

 barrels of water, and which could be pulled through the tree 

 rows by a horse, ox, or mule. The expense would be almost 

 nothing in a 10 to 50 acre orchard if systematically carried out, 

 and each watering would, we feel satisfied, keep the tree in a 

 thoroughly moist condition for ten or fourteen days. The 

 secret of success would be, of course, the removing of the surface 

 soil at each such irrigation and its replacement in a perfectly 

 dry condition, this acting as a thorough mulch. 



We are satisfied such treatment would result in finding the 

 tree at the advent of the first rains in a healthy growing state, and 

 ready to simply jump ahead in the warm, moist atmosphere which 

 accompanies them. 



We visited the district of. Albany on behalf of the Govern- 

 ment in June. 1895. and the country was suffering from a so-called 

 drought. This drought was simply the dry season of the year, 

 when the whole face of the country is dried up and vegetation 

 withered. We had an exactly similar season in California, when 

 in a square mile of veld not a blade of green grass or a green 

 weed was to be found ; but there we call it the dry season, and 

 as far as orcharding is concerned its ill effects can be circum- 

 vented in California by cultivation, i.e., constant tilling of the 

 soil, and we know the same treatment here will give the same 

 good result. ~\Ye remember testing certain hillside land which 

 had been lying fallow on Mr. Stirk's farm, and it was in a beau- 

 tiful moist condition, and would have carried an orchard most 

 assuredly. 



Perhaps it would not be out of place to give our Eastern 

 friends some ideas of the difficulties to be encountered almost 

 annually on some lands of the celebrated St. Clara Valley, in 

 California, which we may here state last year shipped 29.000,000 



