84 



CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 



cold winters and dry summers. But he asserts that, to a great 

 extent, this result has arisen from their standing unprotected 

 in a soil underlaid with a retentive clayey-loam subsoil, which 

 characterizes most of the prairie land. He has adopted the 

 practice of ridging his land, by repeated ploughings, com- 

 mencing at the same ridges and ending at the same dead fur- 

 rows ; and where nursery-trees were formerly thrown out by 

 freezing, after ridging they stand throughout the winter with- 

 out injury, and make a better growth in summer. He recom- 

 mends the ridging system for all orchards, each row of trees 

 being placed on the centre of the ridge. 



We have no doubt that drainage would lessen the effects of 

 severe winters on fruit-trees in other regions than the West. 



It is explained that good cultivation improves land in three 

 ways : by improving the physical texture of the soil ; by sav- 

 ing moisture ; by increasing or accelerating chemical activi- 

 ties. 



Arrangements to Facilitate Cultivation. — The following is an 

 arrangement of kinds of different sizes, into rows for cultiva- 



Fig. I20.— Fruit-Garden. 



tion both ways with horse-labor (Fig. 120). The larger sorts 

 are in wide rows, as explained on page 143. Fruits which are 

 stung by the curculio are planted, at one end, and when the 

 fruit is forming, pigs and geese are confined to that part by 

 the hurdle-fence a a, run across for the occasion. 



A plan of a fruit-garden, arranged in a similar manner, with 

 full details, is given on page 142. 



