COMMERCIAL ORCHARDING IN WEST VIRGINIA. ee. 
planting is from $10 to $30 per acre, depending on the amount of 
timber growth and also upon the manner of cutting down the trees. 
Some leave the stumps, allowing the process of decay to remove 
them. In other cases dynamite is used to blow them out. Others 
cut the trees off level with the ground, so that the stumps will not 
interfere seriously with the cultivation. This practice increases the 
cost of clearing. 
When a contract is let for sleanne land under average conditions, 
the cost is about $20 per acre. On the steep, stony mountain land 
the cost has been $25 to $40 per acre. If it 1s desired to remove the 
stumps as well as to clear the land in the manner above described, 
the cost ranges from $50 to $60 per acre. In some cases the timber 
may be sold at a profit, thus reducing the cost of clearing land. 
PLANTING. 
The laying-off of the land for planting is done preferably in the fall, 
the operation requiring, after the land is measured and the stakes 
are set, one man, two horses, and a plow. This crew should be able 
to cover about 25 acres per day. Trees are bought in the fall at 
prices ranging from 5 to 7 cents and are usually heeled in until the 
soil is in condition for planting in the spring. 
The holes for planting are made in two ways, digging with mattocks 
and shovels or by dynamite, a practice recently adopted by several 
orchardists. Two men should dig the holes and set 125 trees per 
day, the average cost of these operations being 2 cents per tree. 
When dynamiting the holes, the crew may be five men, one man to 
drive the hole with a 10-pound sledge hammer and 3-foot steel bar, 
one to cut the fuse and charge, one to tamp the holes, and two to set 
the trees. This crew should set 125 trees per day at a cost of 5 cents 
per tree. Another method of organizing the crew to make the work 
cost about the same is for three men to drive holes on five rows, one 
man for each row with a box of dynamite, fuse, etc., to charge the 
holes and prepare the fuse for lighting, and one man, usually the 
foreman, to light the fuses on all five rows. Five men follow these 
to throw out dirt from holes. Four men in two groups set the trees. 
The season for planting is either in the fall or in March or April. 
Spring planting seems to be the most common in this section. 
CULTIVATING. 
The season for cultivation is April to August. The general rule 
is to begin cultivating as early in the spring as the soil will permit. 
On the smoother, level lands, such as red soils, the disk harrow is 
used first and is then followed by a spring-tooth harrow. Two 
sections of the spring-tooth harrow may be separated and connected 
by iron bars in such a way as to permit the harrow to work up close 
