100 State Horticultural Society. ' 



gives a very thin soil, but right beneath is the vermicular shales (another 

 poor soil producer,) which with the Choteau makes a wonderfully fertile 

 soil. Farther down comes the Phelps sandstone, which is the same as 

 the Kentucky phosphoric acid beds, but the layer is not thick enough to 

 yield a paying quantity. Going farther we come to the cotton rock, and 

 then the sacroidal sandstone, neither of which gives good soil. The rocks 

 below these are not found as out-croppiiigs near Springfield. 



FERTILITY FOR FRUIT GROWERS. 



Dr. Jordan, the director of the State Experiment Station at Geneva, 

 N. Y.,gave us a talk on fertility, in which the so-called essential plant foods 

 were hardly mentioned, showing that the subject, as he says, is really a 

 very complex one. The soil may contain nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 

 potash in greatest abundance, and yet their purpose be defeated by other 

 conditions, especially by lack of the proper texture of the soil, and by 

 lack of water. Trials made at the Station showed plants growing in clear 

 sand to be unhappy and miserable, while doing very nicely in sand to 

 which three per cent, of sphagnum moss had been added. The favorable 

 result in the latter case was brought about simply by change of texture 

 in the medium. Water must be considered one of the elements of fertility. 

 A lack of it is a more serious handicap in the production of a crop than 

 any other untoward condition. In a good many cases the water con- 

 ditions of the soil are not up to the point where the plants can do their 

 best. An acre of peach orchard containing, say i6o trees, pumps into 

 the atmosphere from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 pounds of water in the course 

 of a single season ; a corn plant evaporates 30 pounds, and a sunflower 

 or hemp plant 60 pounds in their season. The annual precipitation, if 

 from 19 to 36 inches, equals the amount of from 4,000,000 to 8,000,000 

 pounds of water per acre. Some of this is carried away in the drains ; 

 another portion evaporates from the surface, and only a part is saved 

 for the plants or evaporation by the foliage. The available water supply 

 is that which the soil retains for the use of plants, and the only way to 

 save it is by thorough tillage, which breaks the capillarity. It takes from 

 8 to 20 inches of water to support a tree for a year. If we start in the 

 spring with saturated soil, 12 inches of rainfall will be sufficient for the re- 

 mainder of the season, provided that we take good care to supply by 

 tillage. Tools of tillage for orchard use should go down from three 

 to four inches into the soil. In some cases two inches might be suffi- 

 cient. 



