278 The Principles of Fruit-growing. 
few years, it may not be necessary to turn any 
furrows in the plantation in later years, except to 
turn under cover crops. 
All this can be done even with hard clay land. 
The writer has the management of two orchards 
upon very hard clay of uneven surface, which, in six 
years from the setting of the trees, is in such con- 
dition that deep plowing is no longer necessary, and 
the spring fitting of the land is done with spading 
harrows and spring-tooth harrows, and the subse- 
quent tillmg is partly done with a spike-tooth har- 
row. Weeds are not allowed to appear; but if a 
patch should get a start now and then, it can gen- 
erally be destroyed with the cultivator. Perhaps 
once or twice during the season it will be necessary 
to send a man through the orchard with a hoe to 
take the weeds away from the trees, but the space 
which needs such hand labor will not exceed two 
feet in diameter, and it is usually very much less. 
This has been accomplished by exercising great care 
to plow the clay when it is in such condition that 
it pulverizes when it is worked, and by the ineor- 
poration of one or two cover erops. It will be 
necessary now and then to put cover crops on the 
land for the purpose of adding humus, and the land 
will then be regularly plowed in spring to turn the 
crop under; but even then it may not be the de- 
sire to secure a heavy growth of cover crop, and 
the spring plowing need not necessarily be deep and 
laborious. If, however, it seems to be necessary to 
plow six or eight inches deep, there will be no 
