46 CULTIVATION AND MANAGEMENT 
to bear the horse in the spring ; that is, a few days after 
the snow has disappeared. Do not wait until the surface 
begins to get really dry. Your object is to preserve every 
drop of moisture that is already present in the ground. 
Continue to cultivate at intervals of a week or ten days, 
and cultivate always after every shower of rain, until the 
middle of August. Then stop ; do not cultivate any more. 
Rains generally come in September, and if you continue 
to cultivate after the middle of August, you will keep the 
trees growing, and have soft wood—that is, twigs—for 
the winter. By stopping cultivation in the middle of 
August you arrest growth, or nearly so, and give the 
young wood an opportunity to become thoroughly 
ripened ; and it is in that condition that it will best stand 
the sharp frosts of winter. If the trees grow too 
vigorously and make too much wood, grow a crop of 
clover or other cover crop between them. 
Mvtcuine.—Sometimes, when it is inexpedient or 
difficult to cultivate so often as once a week or once every 
ten days, it will help to conserve the moisture if you 
spread a mulch of cut green clover or other forage crop 
round the bottom of the young trees. If you should for 
any reason leave a mulch round your trees all the winter, 
be careful to draw the material 4 or 5 inches back from 
the stem of the tree. Rabbits and mice often take 
shelter in such mulch material during the very coldest 
weather, and it is then a temptation to them to gnaw the 
bark of the young tree. The tree will not suffer by having 
the earth exposed just around its base. 
If you plough early in the spring, as you probably will 
for the benefit of the crops which are to be grown between 
