156 The Principles of Fruit-growing. 
condition, fertile, and free from hard or “sour” places 
and pernicious weeds. There are exceptions to this 
rule in the case of certain rocky or steep lands upon 
which it is desired to set apples; but for all orchards 
which are planted directly for commercial results, 
this advice has few, if any, exceptions. It is gener- 
ally best to put the land into hoed crops the season 
before the trees are set, as potatoes or corn; although 
sod land, if well fitted and naturally in good heart, 
often gives excellent results when turned over and 
set at once to orchards. But most soils need the 
previous cultivation to bring them into a mellow and 
uniform condition. Many of the “bad places” in or- 
chards, where trees die out the first two or three 
years, could have been discovered and corrected if 
the land had been devoted to one or several hoed 
crops, for the owner would have observed that they 
were too wet or too lumpy, or had other serious de- 
fects. Lands look more uniform when in sod than 
when cultivated, and the farmer may be led to over- 
estimate their value for orchard purposes. It may 
also be said that the familiarity with a particular 
piece of land, which comes of frequent cultivation, 
enables the careful grower to judge accurately of its 
adaptability to particular fruits or even to special 
varieties. 
The best tillage is that which begins early in the 
season, and which keeps the surface stirred until late 
summer or early fall, and the best implements are 
those which secure this result with the least amount 
of time and labor. For the first few years, it is gen- 
