76 
hot places, and four to five inches in moister localities, is deep 
enough for all purposes. Unless this cultivation is every year 
carried out, the surface-feeding rootlets will soon assume upon 
themselves the duty of foraging for the maintenance of the plant, 
and thus finally cause the gradual withering up and atrophy of 
the deeper-seated roots. The result of subsequent cultivation, fol- 
lowed up by intense summer heat, may well be imagined. The 
superficial rootlets having been destroyed by the field implements, 
it might happen that the deeper ones would not prove equal to the 
tax suddenly thrown upon them after having become inactive, and 
the result on the plant would soon make itself only too apparent. 
To sum up, the object of summer cultivation consist in de- 
stroying the thirsty and hungry weeds; in intercepting the upward 
motion of moisture from the subsoil, and storing it up in the 
feeding layer of earth round the roots of plants; in enabling the 
soil to soak in and condense more water; in sweetening it by pro- 
moting the ready access of the atmospheric air; in hindering and 
preventing the invasion and propagation of noxious insects by 
exposing them to the action of a roasting sun-heat or to the 
attacks of insectivorous birds and other natural enemies. 
‘ 
FieLtp IMPLEMENTS USED IN CULTIVATION, 
Three sets of horse implements are necessary for the thorough 
cultivation of vine or fruit land:— 
A suitable plough, 
A scarifier, 
A set of harrows, 
without mentioning the hand hoes, pick, digging forks, and minor 
tools and appliances in use for working the soil close up to the 
tree. 
A considerable variety of implements are offered by the trade 
which claim to do the work they are expected to do in the best 
style and at the cheapest cost. The ingenuity of modern makers 
has been considerably taxed of late by the desire to excel their 
rivals, and the result, so far as design and workmanship are con- 
cerned, has attained to a high state of perfection when compared 
with the implements used for similar purposes only a few years 
ago. 
Where some levelling is desirable to seeure an even surface. 
an earth scoop after the surface has been “seruffed”’ up with the 
plough, is of great assistance. Another suitable implement for 
this work is a “buck seraper” made of a solid wooden beam, two 
