168 The Commercial Apple Industry 



6. A tractor may work close to trees. The tractor can 

 easily cultivate close to the tree row. In many cases prac- 

 tically all the work of cultivation can be done when the 

 tractor travels in the center of the row. It is sometimes 

 necessary that the motive power, whether horses or tractor, 

 must pass under the limbs and close to the trees, but even 

 in such cases the tractor does considerably less damage 

 than horses. A suitable type of tractor is not as high as 

 horses and furthermore may be equipped with guards to 

 raise the limbs gently while the machine passes underneath 

 without breaking the limbs or jarring off the fruit. 



7. The tractor may be useful in doing other work than 

 cultivating. The usefulness of the tractor in many 

 orchards is not confined to cultivation. Growers who have 

 used tractors state that they save much time and expense 

 in pulling out trees which need to be removed because of 

 disease or crowding. A medium-sized tractor will pull 

 most trees without difficulty if a chain is fastened well up 

 on the stump or on some of the heavy limbs and then 

 hitched to the tractor. Some growers use the tractor in 

 the orchard for hauling manure, lime, spray materials, and 

 the like, and in rare cases the spray outfit. While the full 

 possibilities of the tractor have not been realized, it must 

 be remembered that if there are idle horses on the farm it 

 will not usually be profitable to employ the tractor for 

 work which two or three horses could do. 



Tractors have proved popular and highly profitable with 

 most orchardists who have used them. It is well to state, 

 however, that there are some disadvantages which many 

 growers have found and which should be given fully as 

 much weight as the advantages. 



1. The tractor is feasible only on a large farm. An 



