No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 217 



This matter of exposure pertains more to very steep hillsides, 

 where there is a marked difference; but in ordinary rolling, sloping 

 hillsides the variation or exposure is not great. On the Paragon 

 Farm, we have every exposure, and have had no failure of a crop 

 from freezing or other causes for many years. More danger lies 

 in lack of knowledge and application of proper culture and fer- 

 tilizing than aught else; but the hillsides have the preference, be- 

 cause they afford natural drainage of both water and air, both of 

 which are essential to profitable crops. 



PREPARATION OF THE SOIL. 



Opinions differ; nearly every fruit raiser has some theory that 

 has proved more or less successful, and he has every reason to 

 believe his method is right. I have mine, and yet I know that the 

 majority of fruit raisers will disagree with me, but in some instances 

 the minority can be right, and without entering into scientific 

 reasons, I wish to state that when, for some reason, there is an 

 occasional failure of a crop, we must come to the conclusion that 

 there is something wrong; that something has been done that 

 should not have been done, or that something has been left undone 

 that should have been done. If, on the other hand, by close atten- 

 tion and skillful manipulation, you have obtained successive crops 

 through a long series of years without one single failure, does 

 it not show that you have struck the keynote to success? Does it 

 not show that you have been working in harmony with nature, 

 that you have applied the right thing at the right time, that you 

 have left undone that which has proven injurious to your neighbor? 

 But your neighbor, in his endeavor to shirk responsibility, will 

 claim it was due to natural causes, that the ingenuity of man could 

 not change it; that if frost comes and freezes his crops he could 

 not stop it. This we will admit, but man can, by proper, intelligent 

 methods, store up sufficient vitality in his trees as to render them 

 immune from the effects of freezes that would under ordinary con- 

 ditions destroy theui. Now, our horticultural lights will tell you, 

 if the soil is infertile, to apply and plow in a heavy coat of stable 

 manure. I tell you to prosecute the man who hauls a load of stable 

 manure into your peach orchard. Dread it as a burnt child dreads 

 fire. It is death to all hopes of continued profitable crops. It 

 contains too much nitrogen; it pushes too soft succulent growth 

 for the development of healthy wood and buds; it renders it in- 

 capable of withstanding the inclemency of our rigorous winters, 

 with their many changes. The growth continues too late in the 

 season, winter sets in while the cells are gorged with immature 

 sap, the freezing ruptures these cells, the vitality of the tree is 

 impaired, rendering it a fit subject for the attack of fungus or other 

 bacterial diseases. 



Soil must have humus; a reasonable amount is necessary, but 

 I would rather bank on a soil deficient in humus than on a soil 

 with a surplus of nitrogen. I have never seen a soil so devoid of 

 humus that I could not raise peaches by continual culture. Attri- 

 tion will render the soil loose, porous and retentive of moisture, 

 when, by the application of fertilizers in an organic form, I can 

 raise maximum crops. How shall we get humus in the soil? This 

 should be put in before planting; it am be Ijetter prepared while 



