No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 507 



moderately rapid growth is required both to produce a good tree of 

 this variety and to get fruit of good size, yet the soil must be open 

 enough to avoid the greenish look and undeveloped color brought 

 about by unsuitable soil conditions. Hence, it will be seen that the 

 King is peculiarly exacting in its soil requirements. 



We W'ill not take up the variety tTiat prefers the lightest soil we 

 shall consider. The Hubbardston, which succeeds so well in New 

 England and i>arts of New York and Northern Pennsylvania, grows 

 to perfection on a deep, fine, sandy loam, moderately rich. That is, 

 on a soil a little heavier than a peach soil — if we adopt the soil, ideal 

 of the coastal plain region for that fruit. If the soil is too light, the 

 Hubbardston is too small, and if too heavy the fruit does not color 

 as it should and the skins are greasy. Hence, the soil should be very 

 mellow and rather light, yet rich enough to produce a moderately 

 rapid growth. Then it will grow large and also be more resistant 

 to the ajjple maggot where this pest is troublesome. 



A variety which follows closely on the Hubbardston is the Smoke- 

 house — a very popular apple of Pennsylvania. This apple succeeds 

 on the heavier Hubbardston soils and grades over in adaptation 

 upon the lighter Baldwin soils — a very profitable apple in Pennsyl- 

 vania markets when well grown. 



But we sometimes have another problem in soil investigations; a 

 favorite variety of some locality no longer does well, and we often 

 hear that it has "run out," that for some unassignable reason it can 

 no longer be successfully grown. This can be traced in many cases 

 to soil conditions, in that it has been planted on all kinds of soils in- 

 discriminately, and on unfavorable soils the variety not only does 

 not grow well, but is also more susceptible to disease. I have tried 

 to bring out as shown by the work of the Department the adapta- 

 tion of some particular variety of fruit to each general grade of 

 soil, beginning with the heaviest soils adapted to apple growing 

 and ending with the lightest. These representative gi'ades of soil 

 may be likened to the rungs of a ladder from the bottom to the top, 

 and it is hoped as fast as the work can go on that the individual 

 requirements and preferences of the different varieties of apples 

 and other fruits may be definitely worked out, thereby not only 

 saving enormous sums in the aggregate each year, but also making 

 it possible for the orchardist or farmer, whether large or small, to 

 select the most favorable soils available, and choose the varieties 

 of fruits to which these soils are best adapted, so that all risk of 

 adaptation to orcharding and varieties will be eliminated, thus 

 adding a most important element of insurance to every orcharding 

 project. 1 have tried not to put the rungs of this ladder so near 

 together that it would be difficult to distinguish the general class 

 of soil which each rung represents. It very often happens, of course, 

 that more than one variety is adapted to one of these general classes, 

 and it also happens that some variety may prefer a kind of soil 

 which represents parts of two grades I have given, but many varie- 

 ties have a limited range of soil preference which may be defined 

 as a unit. 



Other fruits than the apple — particularly the pear and the peach^ 

 show^ decided indications in adaptation for many of the different 

 varieties to special soil conditions, similar to the line of adaptations 



