204 FRUIT FARMING 



the sun drying the surface and injuring the upper 

 roots. It is best to hoe over the surface round the 

 trees before applying this mulch. 



Riisphrrrics should now be cut back, and all winter- 

 pruning be completed as soon as possible. 



Ortliards and Plantations. — Bv this month all digging 

 and planting should be finished, and any new trees 

 of Plums and Damsons, planted carefully before 

 Christmas, may now be headed back. But all other 

 trees should have a year's growth before they are 

 pruned. 



Insect Life will now be reviving, and all prunings, 

 bark-scrapings, rubbish, and hedge-cuttings, etc., 

 should be collected for burning. 



Ne7v Strawberry Fields should be planted this month. 

 Every care must be taken to get a good friable 

 surface on the land (see Chapter XIV 



Orchard Trees should again be greased to catch the 

 spring species of moths that will now be hatching, and 

 ascending the trees. It must be remembered that 

 each female insect lays thousands of eggs. All the 

 spraying apparatus should be overhauled and put in 

 order, and materials for summer use should be procured, 

 as when the first buds begin to swell spraying should 

 be started. 



Where the ground is rouL;h, after the winter digging, 

 a drv time should be chosen to set men in the planta- 

 tions with Canterbury !i-prong hoes to knock over the 

 clods, and to make a friable season, to prevent the 

 soil drying too rapidly Liter on. 



(}(H>sthirr\ Plots should be t>.\aniiMed, and if any of 

 the early formed leaves a|)pear rust\- this is cau.sed 

 by red spid(*r, and \vashin14 should be done at once. 



