No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 363 



they affect the behavior of a variety are constantly at work con- 

 jointly with all the other influences which go to make up the en- 

 vironment — and a variety is largely the product of its environment. 

 It therefore follows that when we consider the matter of varietal 

 adaptability we must consider it in the light of all the influences 

 that affect its behavior in any way. A variety may be of value or 

 it may not be, depending upon the conditions under which it is 

 grown, and the better we understand those conditions, the more 

 nearly can we make them what we want them to be. 



There are various other phasas of this matter I should like to 

 discuss but 1 am already too far from the point of my subject. 

 Time forbids that I wander farther away, except to say that we 

 are in the habit of looking upon many things as pertaining to the 

 soil in its relation to fruit growing that are not soil factors at alJ. 

 A soil that is too moist may need draining but that is a matter of 

 drainage, not of soils, par se; or too much moisture may be the 

 result of too much rain and that is a matter of climate, not of soils ; 

 a lack of moisture, or of plant food or of humus to modify the 

 physical condition — these have to do with soil management, not 

 with soil types and soil characteristics. But we sometimes charge 

 them all up to the soil I Methods of culture and of orchard man- 

 agement are fundamental in their influence upon the adaptability 

 and relative value of a variety. Herein lies the phenomenal suc- 

 cess of one fruit groAver and the flat failure of another when per- 

 haps the natural advantages outside the nature of the men involved 

 are the same in both cases. Herein the grower displays his dis- 

 crimination as to the peculiar needs and retpiirements of each va- 

 riety and his ability to meet those requirements— for not all varieties 

 can be treated the same way with equal success in every case. And 

 it is in the management of an orchard that soil conditions aie prop- 

 erly maintained and ameliorated as the case may require. 



To return briefly to the temperature and moisture factors. This 

 brings us back to a consideration of the climate in its effect upon 

 varieties — for temperature and moisture are two conspicuous ele- 

 ments of climate in relation to plant life. With a low temperature. 

 and as a result moisture largely in the form of ice and snow, the 

 typical vegetation is moss, stunted evergreens and other growth 

 which characterize the Arctic regions. Given a higher temperature 

 and much of the moisture in the form of rain and we have the mixed, 

 varied and abundant vegetation common to the greater part of 

 the United States. A high temperature and the absence of rain and 

 the Sahara and the Great American deserts appear. A maximum 

 in both temperature and rainfall and the luxuriant vegetation of 

 the tropics is a result. Thus you will see the part played by these 

 two limiting factors — ^temperature and moisture. To say that each 

 variety of apple or peach or strawberry requires for maximum re- 

 sults its own particular degree of temperature and its own definite 

 suppl}^ of moisture at particular periods or epochs in its seasonal 

 life — different from every other variety — may be going farther than 

 we have any right to go at this time, yet from an extreme point 

 of view I think this is theoreticallv true. Practicallv, the dis- 

 criminations may be too minute to be of any real importance in 

 most cases. Yet we know that some varieties will successfullv with- 



