CHAPTER VI. 
THE SECONDARY AND INCIDENTAL CARE OF THE 
FRUIT PLANTATION. 
Tue methods of tilling the fruit plantation have 
been fully considered in Chapter III., but since the 
subject is so important and so commonly misunder- 
stood, it may be well to repeat two or three of the 
advisory suggestions at this place. There are many 
persons who fully believe that clean tillage is the 
proper treatment for an orchard, but who are de- 
barred from putting the matter into practice because 
of the great amount of labor which they conceive to 
attach to it. As commonly practiced, it is certainly 
true that the tilling of orchards is one of the most 
laborious duties of the farm, but this is because the 
accustomed methods are wrong or bungling. The 
orchardist rarely has the land fully under his control. 
The essence of the whole matter is to get the land 
in ideal condition whilst the orchard is young, and 
then to practice surface tillage (with only occasional 
plowings) after the trees begin to bear. The use of 
modern implements makes it easy to keep the land 
clean without resorting to the high trunks of the 
old-time orchards. If the roots are made to strike 
deep into the land by deep plowing for the first 
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