148 Preventing Injury to Trees. 
Sieam Plowing of Orchard.—A local phase of orchard plow- 
ing in the Feather River district of the Sacramento Valley is 
worthy of note. A large traction engine has been used to haul 
a gang of plows, covering twenty-four feet of land, the full width 
between the rows of trees, and doing the work of four eight-mule 
teams, turning over the ground in excellent shape and doing the 
work much more cheaply than it can be done by animals. 
Avoiding Injury to Trees and Vines—The great problem 13 
to use the plow so as not to injure the trees and vines. Injury to 
the roots is one ground on which those who advocate the banish- 
ment of the plow from orchard and vineyard base their opposi- 
tion, as will appear more fully presently. It is the usual practise 
to run the plow shallower when approaching the stem of the tree 
or vine, and this is easily done when using a riding plow or a 
two-horse walking plow between the rows and finishing up near 
the trees with a single-horse walking plow, which is a common 
practise. The injury by the plow to which especial reference is 
now made, is that to the bark of the tree or to the vine stump. 
Makers of the special orchard and vineyard plows have re- 
cently made them adjustable so that the plow will work either 
side of the central line of draft, and these improved tools have 
rendered obsolete the early contrivances for accomplishing the 
result with common field plows. 
Flat Hames and a Spreader—Among the worst things for 
use among trees are the pointed iron hames which are found on 
most harnesses. They often seriously bark the branches under 
which the horse passes, and should be dispensed with. An 
arrangement used in San Bernardino County consists in having 
broad leather tugs and hames with only one long iron loop on 
the swell of the hame. The tug is passed around the hame and 
the end is brought through the iron loop from the under side, 
so that the draft will hold the tug tight between the collar and 
the hame and the end between the iron staple and the pulling 
part of the trace. A spreader is put between the tugs; it is made 
of a hard-wood stick sixteen to eighteen inches long; a hole is 
bored in each end large enough for a two-inch screw, a hole 
punched in each trace about twelve inches from the rear end, and 
the tugs are screwed to the ends of the spreader, and the ends 
of the tugs attached to the plow clevis. This gives no iron or 
wooden surfaces at all, either on harness or whiffletree, to strike 
the bark. 
Improved Singletrees——Later than these came the orchard 
and vineyard singletrees, invented and patented by Californians. 
The first was that of G. G. Wickson & Co., of San Fran- 
cisco, and it is now very widely used. As shown in the en- 
graving, it is made in two parallel parts, the trace is slipped 
