87 
One advantage the ‘‘Acme’’ harrow possesses for use in 
orchards is, that it can be fitted with hooks and clips, which enable 
the driver to unhook the pole or shafts from the centre of the 
harrows, and attach it to either side, thus allowing the horses to 
walk clear of the branches whilst three-fourths of the harrow is 
working the soil underneath them. 
THe Drag Harrows or THE Z1c-Zac Harrows. 
are of the greatest use in the vineyard or the orchard for collect- 
ing weeds and rubbish, and keeping the surface of the soil 
perfectly mellow and friable a few days after the running of the 
searifiers or cultivators, or after a summer shower of rain has 
battered the surface of the soil down. 
I would strongly advise searifying the roadways, as well as 
the space between the vines, and keeping them clean and bare of 
weeds, as roads on which grass is allowed to grow prove a never- 
ending source of trouble and infection to the vineyard, the imple- 
ments, in turning, carrying along with them fragments of these 
grasses, which soon spread about and necessitate the almost con- 
tinuous use of hoes, searifier, and harrows. 
CATCH CROPS IN ORCHARDS. 
Fruit growers with limited capital, commencing on small areas 
where the cost of the land and of clearing is very high, sometimes 
seek a quick return by cultivating peas, beans, onions, potatoes, 
strawberries set between the rows, until the trees come into bear- 
ing. When done with judgment the practice is not injurious in 
young orchards in the the South-West where the summer is cooler 
and moister. The amount of manure and extra working is often 
an advantage rather than a detriment to the trees. 
As a rule, however, clean culture in the summer months is to 
be recommended, but there is no harm in sowing with the first rain 
in the autumn a few strips of barley to be eut green for stock, or 
sowing a cover crop, such as field peas, which are ploughed in 
towards the end of the rainy season to enrich the ground and 
improve its physical condition. <A crop of field peas sown on light 
sandy loam, when ploughed in early in the spring, not only adds 
humus to the soil but in addition assimilates from the air a notable 
amount of nitrogen ranging from 50 to 75lbs. per acre, equivalent 
to that contained in 4 cwt. to 6 ewt. of nitrate of soda or in + to 6 
tons of farmyard manures. The cost of securing this valuable 
fertiliser is that of a few bushels of seed and the extra labour of 
putting in the crop and turning it in with the plough. The value 
of the catch crop is much increased by applying at the time of 
sowing the phosphates and the potash required for the season’s 
dressing of the land under vines or fruit trees, 
