HOW TO PLOW AN ORCHARD. 25 
ing an attractive home to insects and mice. There is no 
danger of injuring trees by plowing away from them and 
close to them, if one has trained his trees properly and if 
he exercises care. If the practice of close plowing be in- 
augurated in young orchards, the roots will start deep 
enough to avoid the plow. It is not necessary to plow 
deep. Trees should be pruned high. Low-headed 
trees are an abomination, and they present hardly any 
advantage over high tops. With moderately high-topped 
trees, short whiffletrees, low hames, a strap back-pad 
with leather turrets, a gentle team and a careful man, 
one need not fear about injuring trees. Plow one year 
east and west, the next north and south ; one year to the 
trees, one year from them. 
ORCHARD TILLAGE. 
In the latitude of Bostou and Chicago, cultivation in 
the orchard should cease before September. It is, per- 
haps, a good rule to stop the plow and the hoe a month 
before frost is expected. Late cultivation is always haz- 
ardous, and especially so in the case of young trees or of 
tender varieties. There is much room for an honest 
‘difference of opinion as to the condition in which the 
orchard should be left after a crop is removed. A 
highly successful friend maintains that the orchard 
should be left in weeds because they hold the snow. 
I should much prefer a perfectly clean surface to 
a weedy one. I doubt if snow is so valuable a cover- 
ing about apple trees as some suppose. I even have 
my doubts as to its value in peach orchards. At tho 
best, it is a transient covering and 1t comes and goes 
