588 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



in the East, have been suffering as never before, for want of water. 

 Towns and cities in New York were weeks without water supply in 

 their houses and on their farms. We are now paying ihe penalty 

 for the wholesale destruction, for soil depletion, and our forests, 

 and it is necessary for us now to do something to restore this plant 

 life and to renew the fertilit}' of the land. 



I desire to discuss this evening the relation of the soil to plant 

 life, and what we may do to bring it up again. In the first place, 

 we know the extent to which every tree, and every plant, and every 

 flower that grows is dependent on the soil, for its life, hence the 

 necessity of understanding that each year the ability to sustain 

 plant life is lessening, and that unless something is done to replace 

 this lost fertility, each year is lessening the supi)ly, and increasing 

 the cost of living to humanity. 



I may say that the soil is nowhere near exhausted of its plant 

 food even to-day. I don't believe that there is any danger of ex- 

 hausting the soil anywhere in this country. We have millions of 

 acres of depleted soil, but not one acre of exhausted soil in this 

 country. The Great Creator was wise in his provisions for main- 

 taining all life and he so placed them that it is practically impossible 

 to exhaust them. We have reached the stage where the soil is be- 

 ginning to disown the people who have abused it, and that is why we 

 see the cities crowded to-day. Many people who thought they owTied 

 their farms find that the injured soil has disowned them and driven 

 them away because of the neglect that was shown it. 



Now we want to consider how most economically fertility may 

 be restored. There are methods which may be employed to build 

 up needed plant food. Some of them are very simple. Away back 

 in the sixteenth century there lived a man by the name of Jethro 

 Tull. He was a great student of the soil, and he discovered that 

 tillage was a very important factor. He though he discovered that 

 plants actually took up particles of soil as food. He was a student, 

 and left a book in which he tells of the increased yield from tillage. 

 He is the first writer on the subject of tillage. We know now that 

 he was mistaken in his theory that plants take up particles of the 

 soil, yet no man has done more for the improvement of the soil 

 than did Jethro Tull, because he first discovered that by tillage we 

 can increase production. Why? Because there is hidden away in 

 the soil enough plant food still to meet the demands for centuries 

 to come. 



Next to tillage comes another question of green crops. I want to 

 apply this directly to the orchard this evening. In setting out an 

 orchard, it is necessary to understand the soil, its character, type 

 and quality. There are many orchards set out to-day on the wrong 

 type of soil. I said this afternoon that there are millions of trees 

 planted that are not producing fruit. One reason is that there are 

 many trees planted on soil that is not suited to the production of the 

 apple. That is one of the reasons so many trees planted add nothing 

 to the increased production of fruit. 



There on this chart are shown two distinct types of soil. On 

 the right side you will see entirely distinct types of soils. It is of 

 the oldest limestone formation; here you get the clay soil and the clay 

 loams. On this side of the chart are the sandy types. This sandy 



