II 2 
AMERICAN POMOkOGICAI, SOCIETY 
these plows in heavy soils with fair satisfaction, and of course this is a 
great temptation to every other man to get into the game. 
Mr. Dalton: I have a small tractor that I got last season. I supposed 
that I could only use the tractor for cultivating the orchard. It was made 
by a young man in my county, a genius, a fine young fellow; I> bought the 
machine to answer my purpose as well as to encourage him. I had known 
him from childhood; knew his father and mother, grandfather and grand- 
mother, good people, honest, upright people; and I was sure that the 
machine would operate. When I first got it, asi I said, I thought I would use 
it for the purpose of cultivating the orchard, but it occurred to me after 
I had purchased it that I might use it for spraying purposes. I attached 
a pump to the tractor engine and sprayed my orchard very successfully. 
It gave me all the power I desired, as much as three hundred pounds pressure 
if wanted, so that I could spray to the highest trees in the orchard and spray 
them most thoroughly. I used it for that purpose and then I used it also for 
the purpose of cultivating the orchard after I got through the other work, 
until the rains this fall. 
But I did not attach any plows to it, because I have come to the 
conclusion that I will quit plowing the orchard. I attached a heavy re- 
versible disc to it and found that I could do most excellent work with 
that. But part of the orchard is in the bottom and part on the hill; I 
wished before the season was over that it was all on the hill, because 
the hill part yielded a very excellent crop and I lost the crop entirely 
on the bottom — although it was excellent land. 
As I said, I abandoned the plow; it took me forty years to learn that 
little lesson, but I think I have learned it. Now, some gentleman said this 
morning that the disc is no good in some kinds of land. Well, it will work 
on land close to the Missouri hills and Missouri bottoms; perhaps it is 
better than other land. I find with a disc kept in proper shape that I would 
cultivate the surface of the ground, and that in my judgment is all that 
needs to be done in the orchard. The tractor will go just as close to the 
trees as it ought to go. I find I have been pretty nearly alone in my 
own country, but I always try to avoid hitting or getting too close to my 
trees, and what I lack in cultivating with the tractor and the disc I can 
get with the hoe, for I am a believer somewhat in the old fashioned arm 
swing. My experience has been very limited with the disc, and I only know 
about it in the more or less restricted way in which I speak, but I find it very 
effective. I can turn under and down with the disc, weeds that have grown 
up as high as my body. It is a good instrument and I find that it gives the 
surface cultivation which I think is required, and breaks lejBs roots or limbs 
than other tools and takes care of the orchard in the least possible time. 
Of course, it is quite expensive; I used from ten to fifteen gallons of gastoline 
a day when I worked all day; usually about ten gallons, and that at sixteen 
cents a gallon would amount to quite a little; but then I found it more 
economical than to put a lot of horses at work and feed them, and have 
limbs and roots of the trees torn and broken. We have not at any time 
found it much more expensive to use the machine than the horses. My 
impression is, from what I have seen of the machine, that it is going to prove 
an efficient instrument for proper orchard cultivation. 
