150 Cultivation without Plowing. 
If but one plowing is done, when the chief rains are sup- 
posed to be over, there must be full effort put forth to reduce 
the soil to good tilth, and to level the surface as much as possi- 
ble. This is done by harrowing with one of the several improved 
harrows which are now generally introduced and found very 
effective. They act in cultivating, clod crushing, and leveling, in 
a most satisfactory manner. ‘They are too well known to need 
description. Each has its advocates and its adaptations to cer- 
tain soils. As with plows, so with harrows and cultivators, the 
best for one soil may not be the best for another, and local in-. 
quiry among experienced fruit growers will be the best guide 
for the newcomer. In addition to the excellent implements 
brought from the eastern States, there are others of California 
invention and manufacture which have very marked local adap- 
tations, and almost every fruit region in California has some em- 
bodiment of local inventive genius in the form of implements of 
tillage. 
The secret of success in handling the heavier soils in spring 
working is to secure as perfect surface pulverization as possible 
without compacting the soil. Light soils need a certain amount 
of firming after plowing, or else there is too free access of air 
and too great drying out. For these and other reasons, the 
grower has to study his soil and learn from observation the 
methods which succeed best with it. The practise which gave 
success under certain conditions might not be well adapted 
under other conditions. The use of the roller is a striking 
example of this fact. In some orchards the roller is a bencfit, 
in others a decided injury. Its chief effect is compacting the 
surface layer, which is only desirable on very coarse open soils. 
The long-tooth harrow accomplishes a very marked compacting 
of the soil to the depth it reaclies and olten settles the lower layer 
too closely and causes it 1o run together too solidly if rain fol- 
lows. The modern cultivators, clod-crushers, disk-harrows, etc., 
are superior in effect, each in the soil to which its action is most 
desirable. 
After the work incident to working down the soil after plow- 
ing, the cultivator is relied upon to kill the weeds, break up the 
crust which may form after spring rains or after irrigation, and 
to prevent the compacting of the surface layer of the soil from 
any causes. 
CULTIVATION WITHOUT PLOWING. 
There are orchards in California which have not been plowed 
for years—in some cases the plow has not been used since the 
trees were planted. Instances of this kind are to be found both 
in irrigated and unirrigated land. It depends largely upon the 
