40 



AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



severe thinning practiced. So there is another case where the 

 grower must take into consideration the soil condition in deter- 

 mining how far he can go wnth his thinning with profit. 



There are a number of things which we are trying to do in 

 connection with our work, some of which may be of interest to 

 you. I did some work a few years ago when connected with the 

 experimental farms before I went to MacDonald College in the 

 province of Quebec, which I think did more to impress upon 

 fruit growers the importance of cultivation and the value of 

 moisture than anything else that has been done. In fact, we can 

 trace back now through our old fruit meetings the gradual devel- 

 opment of the orchard cultivation system as practiced through 

 the valley largely from that point. The farmers could see at 

 once that moisture, through the proper cultivation of the soil in 

 the early spring, played an important part in the successful main- 

 tenance of the orchard. In connection wnth that work certain 

 plots w^ere laid out, and soil samples were taken to determine the 

 percentage of moisture in the soil at different periods during 

 the summer time. The follow^ing table gives the results of some 

 of these experiments. 



SEED MOISTURE TESTS WITH COVER CROPS. 



c 



V 



"Si 



o 



a 



9) 



> 



0*0 



•-5 03 



« 5 t- 



c 



a 00 



^►5 



May 12 

 May 26 

 June 9 

 June 23 

 Julv 7 

 July 21 

 Aug. 4 

 Aug. 18 

 Sept. 6 

 Sept. 20 

 Oct. 31 



18.09 

 18.43 

 19.24 

 17.71 

 17.46 

 16.35 

 15.10 

 15.71 

 20.13 

 17.99 

 21.42 



May 



.68 



June 2.29 

 July 2.07 

 Aug. 2.40 



Sept. 

 Oft. 



3.63 

 5.78 



