702 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



is not clearly understood. By weather is meant the condition of the 

 atmosphere at any one time with regard to its temperature, humidity,, 

 niotion, etc., whereas climate is made up from the record of these obser- 

 vations. The simple thermometer does not measure temperature as felt 

 by animal life. There are two temperatures, the actual and the sensible, 

 and it may be that vegetable growth and timber growth is also affected 

 in the same manner by this sensible temperature, so that even the 

 thermometer does not indicate the best tests for fruit-growing. 



As the drift soil of this fruit belt region has thus been created by the 

 action of water, by which earthy materials have been separated into 

 coarser and finer portions, you will find on sections of land in this fruit 

 belt country a forty which may be heavy clay, and an adjoining forty 

 of light drift soil,, so that this fruit belt country is what may be called 

 spotted land. In general, soils that are made up in this way of clay will 

 hold more water than sandy or gravelly soil, but the motion of water 

 through them is slower, and loss by drainage and surface evaporation is 

 less rapid, so that coarse grained soils that are sandy are quickly sat- 

 urated with rain but hold less of it, and dry out sooner by drainage or 

 evaporation. They also have less drouth resisting powers, though easier 

 to cultivate. I do not mean they do not have drouths in this fruit belt 

 section, but I do mean that this drift soil has less drouths, and that 

 surface cultivation in this humid atmosphere will pull crops through, 

 when, in the interior of the State, the same drouth will injure and destroy 

 crops. As the humid atmosphere of this fruit belt region largely over- 

 comes this question of drouth on lighter lands, the same objection to 

 them does not exist is in the interior portion of the country where the 

 prairie or clay farmer lives. Again, a clay soil in the interior of the con- 

 tinent, of close texture, impervious to roots and water and perhaps lumpy, 

 may become through poor cultivation chemically rich, but practically 

 barren because its compactness makes it difficult for roots to reach and 

 use its source of plant food; whereas a sandy or drift soil may show T less 

 of phosphoric acid, lime, nitrogen, or potash, but its loose texture may 

 produce better crops. On loose, porous or drift soil subsoil-plowing 

 results in diminishing crops of all kinds. On the other kind, surface 

 cultivation gives better results. Fanners used to subsoil plowing do 

 not understand this, and they have to change their method when they 

 move into this fruit belt section. The amount of lime in the soil neces- 

 sary for fertility varies according to the kinds of soil. This explains 

 why the alkali or gypsum particles in this drift soil produces such lux- 

 uriant vegetation, and that clay soil requires more lime than sandy. 



Take an inside farmer who owns clay or prairie land into this fruit belt 

 region and show him maple trees and beech trees such as grow on clay 

 land in the interior and In 1 cannot understand it, because he does not 

 know that this drift soil is full of alkaline gypsum substances, furnish- 

 ing a better growth or vegetation than day land, and that these trees 

 reach up into a humid atmosphere that his trees do not grow to. You 

 will notice that the beech and maple trees in this fruit belt region grow 

 long trunks and to a greater height than a1 interior points: there is more 

 lumber in them. The interior beech and ample are short t ranked with 

 low branches, while the fruit tree section maple and beech grow to a 

 great height with clean trunks. 



That this land is drift soil is apparent also from the tact thai the East 



