STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 117 



revive at night it is only because the leaf evaporation is reduced 

 below the absorptive capacity of the roots ; not at all because the 

 leaves themselves get moisture from the air. 



The sole effect of tillage, so far as the water supply is concerned, 

 is to hinder the evaporation from the surface, and in this the action 

 is exactly that of mulch. The stirred soil is, in fact, a mulch to the 

 unstirred part below. The drier and finer the surface layer the bet- 

 ter its effect. We should not lose sight of the fact that the stirred 

 soildoes dry out much more thoroughly than the unstirred part. 

 Somehow or other the same man will stir up his cut grass to make 

 it dry faster, aud then proceed to stir his soil to keep it from drying ! 

 The effect is precisely the same in both cases, but in the latter the 

 the dry surface layer shields that beneath and partially preserves 

 from evaporation the water in this deeper part. Pulverization 

 destroys tbe capillary attraction, and so prevents the water coming 

 in contact with the dry air. If it were possible to completely arrest 

 this surface evaporation, we could raise any crop we grow, to per- 

 fection, so far as soil water is concerned, without a drop of summer 

 rain. But since this cannot be done in practice, the rains of the 

 latter half of the summer are of paramount importance. 



We are slowly coming to understand that trees are, with us, 

 summer-killed rather than winter-killed. The damage is tiruly done 

 by both extremes ; but it is the condition in which* the trees are at 

 the end of the growing season, much more than the degree of cold 

 marked by the thermometers, which determines the result. A want 

 of sufficient water in midsummer does more than simply retard 

 growth. It induces a semi-dormant state from which the tissues 

 awaken late in the autumn without chance for subsequent ripening, 

 and so, poorly prepared for frost. If we would save our orchards 

 from the vicissitudes of Winter, we must begin in the Spring, and 

 from the foregoing, some direction and encouragement can be taken. 



There are no evident natural impediments to successful horti- 

 culture in our country, which attainable knowledge and skill may 

 not remove. One of the glories of horticultural pursuits is that 

 they require intelligence. He who sits under his own productive vine 

 and fig tree, by virtue of his lordly mastery over untoward influences 

 and conditions, ranks far above him who in torpid lassitude of mind 

 and body, has but to reach forth his nerveless hand to gather the 

 luscious and bountiful products of prodigal nature. We need not 

 harder toil, but further and better insight into the controlling influ- 

 ences and laws by which the machinery of the world is adjusted and 

 moved, and by which we must square our preparations for conquest. 



