CHAPTER IX. 



THE SIZE OF THE ORCHARD. 



It usually requires considerable self-restraint for 

 farmers to confine their fig orchards to areas they 

 can cultivate intensively. Successful tillage is gen- 

 erally accomplished by persons whose operations 

 are not hindered by family traditions about farm- 

 ing, and whose plans are unhampered by habits of 

 thought that have become crystalized through pa- 

 ternal instructions; such knowledge often inter- 

 fering with improvement. The ease with which 

 figs are popularly supposed to be grown renders it 

 difficult for an average man to limit his work to a 

 field over which he can maintain complete control. 

 Five acres is a good orchard for a farmer who has 

 no grown sons at home ; the first six months of each 

 year it should consume about one-fourth of his 

 time, and about all of it during: each fruiting season. 

 We remember the Greek who encouraged his sons 

 to diligent tillaee by the statement when dyir^ that 

 treasure lay buried in his vineyard, and how their 

 searches were rewarded by bountiful harvests. Five 

 acres well tilled twelve inches deep will raise more 

 good figs than ten acres tilled six inches deep. The 

 storehouse of plant food and the reservoir of soil 

 moisture is beneath the surface, and when those 

 immeasurable depths of fertility are stirred, and 



