Winter Meeting. 371 



It is pretty safe to say that a good soil for orchard growing is one 

 practically free from rocks, a fertile clay soil that will retain moisture and 

 a soil that will produce good agricultural crops in the region selected. 



While scientific knowledge is rapidly gaining ground along this 

 line, as well as many other lines of farming, a scientific or technical 

 knowledge of the soil constituents is not absolutely necessary in locating 

 an orchard in a place suitable for fruit growing. 



In the study of orchard location it may be best to observe the thrift 

 and general conditions of trees of the same species already foUnd there. 

 If they grow well and bear well, and are also hardy, withstanding 

 drouth and wet seasons, as well as sudden and severe cold, if they pass 

 through all these conditions and grow to a good size, and are fruitful, 

 it would indicate that this particular location is adapted to that species. 

 But sometimes a good tree can be grown which will bear no fruit, indi- 

 cating that this particular variety is a failure. In this case the grower 

 need not necessarily lose all the years in which these trees have been 

 growing, but can top graft the thrifty tree with some variety more 

 profitable. 



Top grafting is often very successful and excellent results arc 

 obtained, but is quite a severe remedy and not always to be recom- 

 mended. 



The man who plants and growls an orchard to bearing age must 

 expect to get a great deal of advice, absolutely free, from many people 

 who have never grown an orchard and also from some who have 

 had experience, and the whole tenor of this advice is "grow good fruit, 

 grow only good fruit; you will always find a good market for high 

 grade fruit," and so on. Now for advice, that is alright, and I most em- 

 phatically say the same thing, but I want to say to you confidentially that 

 each and every one of us grows lots of poor stufif while we are talk- 

 ing about the good. 



A small orchard, even on very high-priced fertile land, located where 

 there is a suitable market for the poorer grades of apples as well as the 

 high grade fruit, will usually be found profitable, while the rough and 

 inconveniently situated orchard of great size can be only a source of 

 worry, waste and disappointment to the owner unless the management 

 be very highly efficient. 



A nearness to cold storage should not be overlooked entirely in 

 locating a commercial orchard. With storage near by the difference 

 between the summer, fall and winter varieties is not so apparent as it 

 once was, the early ripening varieties sometimes proving as profitable as 

 the ones that mature later in the season. 



