CHAPTER XI. 



TILLAGE OF FIG LANDS. 



Tillage began by pulling up virgin growth to 

 make room for seed. The next step was the removal 

 of weeds to give chosen plants more room. To- 

 day we think of it as a custom, but the art is primi- 

 tive with many, and only since yesterday have 

 scientific principles begun to be understood. Pio- 

 neers have always been adventurers; after them 

 have come stockmen, then grain farmers, and lastly 

 truckers and horticulturists with intensive work. 

 Stockmen farm on horseback and ridicule scientific 

 work; men who study soils, drainage, plant 

 food, tree selection and fruit markets are very dif- 

 ferent individuals. Fifty years ago those who 

 practiced scientific horticulture were confined to 

 the "gentlemen" class, to whom farming was a 

 diversion, nor has it been long since Daniel Webster 

 added materially to the art by inventing an im- 

 proved plow. 



Tillage of fig orchards differs from ordinary cul- 

 tural methods only in detail. There is a widespread 

 impression that fig trees do not need cultivation; 

 that cuttings can be put in the ground and left to 

 grow a couple of years, until the owner returns for 

 a harvest. "They produce abundant crops without 

 any care or attention," wrote an official in a recent 



