ITS CULTTJEE IN CALIFOKNIA. 



55 



Slow Starting.— Sometimes a tree man- 

 ifests no signs of growing at the first or 

 second or third season after transplanting. 

 Sometimes while maintaining a healthy- 

 hue of stock and limb, it remains dormant 

 a whole year. In such cases there is noth- 

 ing to do but to see that the tree has suffi- 

 cient irrigation and cultivation, and await 

 results. When it finally starts, as start it 

 will, the lost time may be in a great meas- 

 ure retrived by the extra vigor of growth. 



Backsets. — When newly transplanted 

 trees are frosted or preyed upon by grass- 



hoppers, gophers, squirrels, rabbits or 

 other pests — the foliage destroyed and the 

 bark injured — they may languish for the 

 first year and make a start in the second. 



Stunted Trees.— A second or third 

 backset, however, and sometimes the first 

 if severe, is sufficient to stunt the tree. 

 When satisfied that a tree is stunted, the 

 best thing you can do is to dig it up and 

 throw it away. It might, with careful 

 nursing, make out to live, but its exist- 

 ence would be sickly and unprofitable. 

 Do not waste your labor upon it. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



CULTIVATION. 



Object of Cultivation. — All soils, 

 loose and compact alike, form a sort of 

 crust upon the surface under the action 

 of rain and sunshine. Scientists tell us 

 that the fine particles thus pressed to- 

 gether form a series of ducts or flues, 

 which by capillary attraction suck up the 

 moisture from beneath and send it off in 

 the form of vapor. The first office of cul- 

 tivation is to break up these ducts, and 

 thus summarily check the loss of moist- 

 ure from the soil. The second office of 

 cultivation is to destroy the weeds, for 

 they, too, draw up, appropriate to their 

 own use and evaporate a share of the 

 moisture. The whole end and object of 

 cultivation then is to conserve the supply 

 of water in the earth. It would be well if 

 this fact were more constantly borne in 

 mind. Some people think that if they 

 cultivate enough to keep the weeds out of 

 their orchards they fulfill every require- 

 ment. This is not the case. They are 

 merely attending to one of the incidentals 

 of cultivation. 



Cultivation versus Irrigation, — It is 

 saidthat the most successful ph ysician 

 is he who directs his efforts towards aid- 

 ing Nature in the work of recuperation. 

 So, I may say, the most successful culti- 

 vator is the one who most aids Nature to 

 preserve her store of moisture. In setting 

 out to raise an orchard, were I given my 

 choice of cultivation without irrigation or 

 irrigation without cultivation, I would 



unhesitatingly pin my faith to cultivation 

 alone. In the case of orange trees it has 

 been demonstrated by Dr. O. H. Congar, 

 of Pasadena, that they may be grown in 

 his locality without any artificial supply 

 of water, but he concedes that, to obtain 

 profitable results from trees in hearing ^ 

 they must be irrigated. Probably the 

 middle ground, which comprehends 

 thorough cultivation and judicious irriga- 

 tion is best, even in bringing an orchard 

 up to the bearing point. Herein many of 

 the old growers made a fatal mistake. 

 They flooded the ground a half dozen 

 times a year and did not stir it half enough. 

 The result is manifest in stunted, gnarled 

 and diseased trees— trees that produce in- 

 ferior fruit and are dead when they ought 

 to be in their prime. 



When and How to Cultivate— Plow- 

 ing.— As soon as the rainy season is well 

 inaugurated it is best to plow the orchard 

 ground with a single plow, throwing a 

 furrow against the trees on each side, and 

 leaving a dead furrow m the middle be- 

 tween the rows. This mellows the soil so 

 that it is in the best condition to drink up 

 the rains, and, should there be a surplus 

 of water it will run to the dead furrows 

 instead of standing about the trees to their 

 detriment. In case the orchard is located 

 on sloping ground, it is best to run the fur- 

 rows diagonally down the decline, as they 

 thus furnish an easy fall for the surplus 

 water. If th© furrows lead directly down 



