Winter Meeting. 391 



RED SOILS OXIDIZE ORGANIC MATTER READILY. 



While red soils are known to be good fruit soils, it should be re- 

 membered that they oxidize or burn out their supply of humus or or- 

 ganic matter very rapidly : 



Because this organic matter is exposed to the air, just as it is in 

 the sandy soil, and is therefore quickly oxidized, therefore manure ap- 

 plied to a red soil or a sandy soil will show greater results in the first 

 year or two than on a tight, close clay, but the benefits will not be nearly 

 so lasting. The same is true of a crop of green manure. Such types 

 of soils as these therefore become deficient in humus much quicker than 

 ^^ iiat we commonly term slower and tighter clay lands. 



It is, furthermore, true in the case of the red soils that in the 

 change from a moist to a dry condition of the soil there are important 

 chemical changes in the iron itself which greatly facilitate the burning 

 out of the organic matter. This is due to the fact that the red oxide of 

 iron in contact with organic matter and in the presence of moisture is 

 reduced to a sub-oxide, giving off by this process a portion of its oxygen 

 to burn the organic matter present in the soil. In the drying of the 

 soil, the sub-oxide of iron is quickly raised to the higher form of the 

 red oxide, ready to give up again in the presence of moisture its oxygen 

 to burn out the vegetable matter. This process of oxidizing organic 

 matter continues as the land alternates between wet and dry conditions. 

 It is of the utmost importance, therefore, that he owners of red land 

 should be especially careful to maintain a liberal supply of humus under 

 all circumstances, and to calculate upon this extra loss due to the 

 presence of the iron. 



FOOD REQUIREMENTS OF DIFFERENT CLASSES OF FRUIT TREES IN BEARING. 



While the different kinds of fruit trees present important differ- 

 ences in their habits of growth and productiveness, yet in the propor- 

 tions of the different elements of food required for their normal growth 

 and fruitfulncss, they exhibit a striking similarity, as is shown by some 

 recent investigations conducted at the New York Experiment Station.'" 



*Bulletin 265. Plant Food Constituents for IJeaiinj? Fruit Orchards. 



