196 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



MRS. EANSOM. I would like to ask Mr. Mills if this burr clover 

 that comes up without being sowed is the one? 

 MR. MILLS. Yes. 



MRS. RANSOM. That comes up without our planting it. We use 

 it for grazing purposes. The cattle do not eat it in its green state, 

 because it is sour. Didn't you state that the burr clover grew some 

 feet high? 



MR. MILLS. No; that is the Canadian pea. Burr clover hugs the 

 ground. 



MR. BERWICK. Mr. Chairman, I feel rather at sea. I think we 

 have been taught in previous years, by those who were supposed to 

 know, that we should not encourage roots within eight inches of the 

 surface, at least we should have the roots go to a lower level than that ; 

 that we should, as far as possible, cultivate a full depth of eight inches 

 and have that soil loose and fairly free from roots. Mr. Mills now 

 suggests the contrary practice. In my practice I have plowed as late 

 as April and had excellent results, plowing-under burr clover that was 

 very hard to tackle, and had no bad results from plowing eight inches 

 deep. My practice was in Carmel Valley. 



MR. MILLS. I don't want it to be understood that I do not cultivate 

 deep. If you will show me a dozen farmers in California who cultivate 

 soil eight inches deep I will give you a new hat. I do cultivate deeper 

 than any man in California, I think, and I try to get down eight inches 

 during the hot summer months. I put four large mules, running from 

 1,400 to 1,500 pounds, on to an eight-foot cultivator, and I put it in 

 the ground to the beam. The tooth is kept always new and the point 

 is nine inches below the bottom of the beam of the cultivator. Of course, 

 in its progress through the orchard it piles up the mulch in front of it 

 and it does not get nine inches in the ground; it gets as near eight 

 inches as possible; but I never think of plowing eight inches deep in 

 the cold months of the year. Think of it, January, February, Decem- 

 ber! You have got your overcoat on. Sometimes you have got an 

 overcoat on your tree. Sometimes you have got a fire in your orchard. 

 Your soil is cold and the feeding roots are coming to the surface to 

 get what they can of the available fertilizer made available by activities 

 near the surface. The sun's rays are absorbed during the day, given 

 off at night. There the warmth is, there the fertilizer is available, and 

 we have found it injurious to plow our orchard deep at that time. But 

 when May, June, July, and August come, then with all the power of 

 our might we cultivate, and if a four-horse team can't do it two days 

 hand-running they are put by to rest and another is put on. It must 

 be cultivated, because we have got to keep the water in the soil to make 

 available the fertilizer that is in the soil, that the root system may get 

 the moisture and the fertilizer in solution up to the leaf, and the solution 



