The Winslow mail., 1908-06-06
STARTING ORCHARDS.
Poor Orchard Comes from Neglect at
the Start.

started right is important. The av-
erage lnan justly feels that he must
econonlize in starting the young or
chard, and too often economy leads to
neglect. Though the process of rear
ing the orchard to a productive stage
IS an expensive one, it is worth doing
well. The buying OF poor trees, care
less p enaration of the land for plant
ing, or lack of care after planting, is
poor economy. The productive and
profitable old orchard is the one grown
well While young.
While raw land is not the most sat
isfactory upon which to set young
trees, it often seems advisable to set
on such land without previous crop
ping. The matter of breaking the
land in by some previous method of
cropping hardly seems important
enough to nece3sitate the loss of one
or two years growth on the young or
chard. With little additional care the
young orchard can be successfully
grown On land its first season under
water. These soils in our arid coun-
tries are dry and require careful water
ing. Ii the raw land must be set, it
should be carefully prepared before
planting. AS a rule, the sander soils
should be thoroughly watered before
an attempt is ma e to level them. Very
otter tie higher spots settle most, and
if thesa knolls are pulled off before
watering The same, soil must be moved
back after settling is complete Wa
ter should be worked onto these high
places as the first step in the prepara-
ticn Of the land. Often the land is
thoroughly Watered before it is plowed
worked deeply and thoroughly. Some
even advocate the use of the subsoil
rlow in the space to be occupied by
the tree rows. This could surely do no
harm and may give the roots a better
chance to penetrate the subsCil.
the next step is carefully to level
the land The young orchard should
never be Planted on a poorly leveled
piece Of land. Leveling after the trees
ale set is unsatisfactory and the or
chard set on half-leveled land soon
shows lack of uniformity which it re-
quireS years to oItgrow Good level
ing greatly r. ,uces the labor of water
ing aid the per cent. of trees lost in
setting.
Land which has been previously
farmed or crOpred is the most salts
factory upon which to set young trees
If the land has been we'll watered, it
is uniformly moist, will require the
minimum amount of water to start the
young trees, and all danger from fu-
ture setting is obviated. However,
this land will sug~~er quicker from over
watering than the raw land The
amount of moisture already in the sub
soil retards the recovery from over
watering.
There is one precaution to be taken
in the preparation of all land for
planting to young trees. The earlier
it can be done the better The land
liowed i'll the late spring takes water
too freely and the young trees often
suffer from overwatering. The upper
part of the soil becomes saturated
with water and drives out the air
and smothers the roots of the young
trees. To avoid this difficulty the land
should be prepared early and thor
oughly worked down or settled with
frequent winter and early spring culti-
Eatiops. This is es' ecially necessary
in the case of alfalfa land which is to be
planted to young trees. The disc har.
row and smoothing harrow are salts
FactOfy tools for this work-O. B.