468 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



perhaps, there are sections in which commercial orcharding could 

 not be safely and profitably undertaken, yet this does not reason- 

 ably imply that there is a single farm in this entire Commonwealth 

 that will not produce apples, sufficient at least, for use in the home. 

 Therefore, it is not the purpose of this paper to speak to the expert 

 commercial orchardist, but more directly to the everyday farmer, 

 and if these words may inspire some one to plant but a single tree 

 and properl3^ nourish and protect it, their mission will have been 

 accomplished. • 



SOIL. 



The mistake commonly made in locating an orchard is in selecting 

 a poor piece of ground. Land that is thin, rocky and too steep to 

 cultivate and very much unsuited in every way for growing the 

 ordinary farm crops, in fact the roughest piece of ground on the 

 farm is very often selected as the site for the young apple orchard. 

 By this procedure the farmer is often led to conclude that he is 

 wisely practicing economy in appropriating his rough and partly 

 valueless land to apple growing. No soil is too good for growing 

 apples, and he that expects to receive anything like paying results 

 from his orchard must give his trees a soil fully as productive and 

 a treatment fully as generous as that bestowed upon any other 

 crop from which remunerative results are expected. A soil that 

 will produce any good farm crop, will also produce good apples, if 

 the necessary precautions are taken to keep it in proper tilth. This 

 can be very readily ascertained by planting the ground to some 

 annual crop, such as corn or potatoes. If a good yield is obtained, 

 it may be taken as a good indication that the soil is in proper condi- 

 tion for the trees; if not, it should be cultivated and fertilized until 

 it may have reached the required standard of fertility. On loamy 

 soils the wood growth is strong and vigorous, but is not always 

 sufficiently mature to withstand the rigor of our Pennsylvania win- 

 ters. Clay lands are naturally not such heavy producers of wood 

 growth, but trees grown on these soils are hardier as to winter-kill- 

 ing than on loamy or sand^' soils. The objection urged against 

 sandy soils is that they are often lacking in some of the requisite 

 plant food, but soils and subsoils of this character also possess 

 their points of merit in that the ground never becomes hard and 

 compact, and the trees are permitted to readily and deeply penetrate 

 their roots in every direction. The typical soil for growing aj^ples 

 seems to be one that is rather open and porous and overlying a like 

 subsoil or one not too compact in texture. A loamy soil, with a 

 mixture of clay and sand or gravel, would, therefore, apparently 

 possess the proper physical combination for apple culture. These 

 qualities permit an easy and unobstructed penetration of the roots 

 and a healthy circulation of air and water. 



