COLORADO EXPERIMENT STATION 
6 
do not the expressions, “merciless cultivation'’ and “relentless culture” 
aptly describe this system? 
Prof. Bailey** has summarized the benefits of tillage ^s follows: 
I. Tillage improves the physical condition of the land. 
(a) By fining the soil, and thereby presenting greater feeding sur¬ 
face to the roots; 
(b) By increasing the depth of the soil, and thereby giving a greater 
foraging and roothold area to the plant; 
(c) By warming and drying the soil in spring; 
(d) By reducing the extremes of tempreature and moisture. 
2 Tillage may save moisture, 
(e) By increasing the water-holding capacity of the soil; 
(f) By checking evaporation. 
3 Tillage may augment chemical activities, 
(g) By aiding in setting free plant-food; 
(h) By promoting nitrification; 
(i) By hastening the decomposition of organic matter; 
(j) By extending these agencies (g, h, i) to greater depths of the 
soil. 
A composite of the practices of a number of the most successful 
fruit growers results as follows; Use the turning plow in the spring, 
each year or often enough to prevent the ground from becoming hard. 
Follow the plow with a harrow or disc, if lumpy, and this with the 
smoothing harrow. Some use a float instead of the harrow. The 
subsequent cultivation consists in going over the ground often enough 
to prevent a crust from forming and to keep the weeds down. This 
necessitates cultivation after each irrigation and after rains. The 
Planet Jr. cultivator and the smoothing harrow are used for this 
purpose. Cultivation is continued until the branches are bent down 
by the fruit which will average about the first of August. 
Winter cultivation is practiced when the condition of the ground 
will permit. Two cultivations during the winter is considered to be 
about right. The Planet Jr. or a disc harrow is used for this pur¬ 
pose. 
Turning now to the classification of the benefits of tillage it 
would seem at first thought that the system followed by our best or- 
chardists met all requirements. We find first that tillage improves 
the physical condition of the land. By the physical condition is meant 
its tilth and general make up, whether it is compact and heavy or 
whether it is loose and loamy. But any one who has traveled about 
among the orchards knows that in the majority of cases the soil is far 
from being loose and loamy. On the contrary, it soon becomes com¬ 
pact, lacks fibre and it becomes puddled after irrigation or rains. We 
have even seen orchard soils so hard two inches below the surface 
that an opening could be made into it only with the aid of a pick. 
And yet thorough cultivation had been given the land for years. 
Evidently something is wrong, so we follow on down the classifica- 
cation and find under i, that tillage may hasten'the decomposition of 
organic matter. Here we believe is the cause of our difficulties. 
Cultivation, bare soils and intense sunshine do hasten decomposition 
**Rai’ey, L. H The Principles of Fruit Growing p. 139. 
