448 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



four hundred acres of Wine Sap, Missouri Pippin and Ben Davis, all red apples ; the 

 trees were low headed and the limbs touched the ground with their burdens of fruit ; 

 two hundred men were at work. The production had been sold for sixty thousand 

 dollars for the barreled apples and some ten thousand dollars for the dryers and cider 

 fruit. Just beyond and belonging to the same orchard, were eight hundred acres not 

 yet in bearing, twelve hundred acres in all. 



I have not changed my mind, that if our apple growers will take care of, feed, spray 

 their orchards, and market their fruit iu a business like way, taking advantage of, and 

 making use of any new and better methods than those which their fathers followed, 

 that they will find their profit and loss account a very satisfactory one. 



THE CONSERVATION OF WATER FOR GROWING CROPS. 



BY PBOF. 1. P. ROBERTS, DIRECTOR OF COLT.EGE OF AGRICULTURE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 



Water carries all of the food of plants and animals into circulation and all excreted 

 material out of circulation, so there cannot be abundant growth and vigorous healthy 

 life, without there is an abundance of water always present in the tissues of growing 

 organisms. Most living plants contain from seventy -five to ninety- five per cent of 

 water. Notwithstanding the great need of plants for a liberal supply of water, yet, the 

 soil may easily contain so much as to injure or even destroy them. 



For carrying off a superabundance of water, in all ordinary cases provision may be 

 made by means of surface and underground drains, but the problem of supplying 

 water cheaply to plants when there is a lack, is a difficult one. 



In most localities in the Eastern and Middle States surface irrigation is found to be 

 not only impracticable on account of lack of water, but also because on many soils 

 surface-irrigation results in injury to the land. Clay lands unless most thoroughly 

 under- drained become puddled, sour and reduced in productive power when surface- 

 iri'igated. Only on certain classes of soils, usually found in arid countries, does surface- 

 irrigation become fully successful. Sub-irrigation is the ideal method, but it is so 

 expensive that it can come into use only where large amounts of very valuable products 

 can be secured on small areas. 



With few exceptions all cultivated plants have to depend on the water stored in the 

 soil. How to make a great storehouse for water in the soil without saturating it, and 

 how to get the water near to the surface for the use of the plant without letting it 

 escape during dry weather become subjects of prime importance to every plant grower. 



It should not be forgotten that water moves up hill as easily as it does down : that 

 is to say it obeys the strongest force ; if it were not so the oceans and lakes would soon 

 overflow the land. Parenthetically, I might say that in the early period of the earth's 

 formation the water moved uphill so persistently that it covered the whole face of the 

 earth. 



An acre of soil one foot deep will weigh about one thousand six hundred tons, and 

 may contain when in good condition for growing crops thirty-two per cent, of water. 

 This is equal to five hundred tons or four thousand barrels per acre. If the soil is too 

 compact or too loose not more than half this amount, sometimes not more than one- 

 quarter will be contained in the interstices or pores of the land. Soils vary very much 

 in their power to hold on to water without being saturated. A friable clay loam has 

 the power of storing water to a much larger degree than heavy clay or loose sandy soils. 

 Heavy rains in the fall and spring tend to puddle the land, that is, fill the interstices 

 which are between the particles or molecules of earth, thereby diminishing to a great 

 extent the storage capacity of the land. Often about the only object of deep culture 

 is to overcome the effect produced by heavy beating rains and to enlarge the capacity of 

 the soil for holding on to moisture. We find then that there is a large amount of water 

 stored in the first twelve inches of the surface soil, and we know that a large additional 

 amount is found in the sub soil ; in some cases it is far more than is found in the 

 surface soil, although usually that is not the case. 



The question arises how to make the best use of and how to conserve this stored up 

 water, which finally contains all the fertilizing material which enters into the circula- 

 tion of the plant ? Thin seeding assists very materially in the conservation of moist- 

 ure. Plants usually suffer in the middle and latter part of the summer when they are 

 trying to produce fruit. If too many plants are growing upon the surface, the land 



