WEST MICHIGAN FRUIT GROWERS' SOCIETY. 73 



vegetables. Not only this, but most fruit growers own land sufficient to allow 

 them to raise more or less of the cereals used by their families and upon their 

 farms. If this course were followed, fruit growers would not be so depend- 

 ent upon the results of any particular crop. If this is true, and I think it 

 can not be successfully contradicted, the fruit grower as well as the farmer 

 is directly interested in the question under discussion. This is not all, because 

 while it must be admitted that most fruits may be successfully cultivated 

 upon lighter "soils than are required for the various cereals, it is also true that 

 fruits are greatly benefited by good soils, provided other surroundings are 

 favorable. ^ ■ 



The various works devoted to the description of the soils covering the sur- 

 face of the earth divide them into three classes according to the amount of 

 alumina or clay contained in each, to wit : the sandy soil, of which sand and 

 silica are largely in excess, with a small per cent of clay; the clay soil, which 

 contains a large amount of alumina or clay, and the loam, which contains a 

 medium amount of clay. It is therefore true that all sandy soils contain 

 more or less alumina and that all clay soils contain more or less sand and 

 silica. There is another fact which may be mentioned, that is none the less 

 remarkable, which is that the analysis of plants and general vegetation, show 

 that none of them contain any alumina, and but very little silica, and that 

 this silica is rather accidental than as forming a necessary ingredient of the 

 plant. This would rather lead to the belief that nature furnished both the 

 sand and the clay, not directly for the formation of vegetation, but rather 

 for the purpose of regulating the heat and moisture of the ground, while other 

 agencies are carrying forward their growth. 



When we recall the fact that such an immense proportion of the bulk of 

 the earth is composed of sand, silica and alumina in their various forms, and 

 that their office is only to keep trees and plants in position and convey mois- 

 ture to their roots, the thought seems almost incredible. Whether this be 

 true or not, experience has demonstrated the fact that a soil in which clay is 

 largely deficient is not regarded as being a good one for any kind of vegeta- 

 tation, and that a very stiff clay is almost, if not quite, as poor as a barren 

 sand. It is also a fact that both soils are affected about alike by the extreme 

 heat of summer, while the clay soil has the further disadvantage that it is not 

 so readily susceptible to the rays of the sun in the spring. 



Undoubtedly the soil to be preferred, particularly for the fruit and vege- 

 table raising, is that in which there is a medium amount of clay, but not 

 enough so that the soil would be termed a clay soil. But we can not all 

 select such a soil as we might desire, were it in our power to make the 

 choice. Those of us, then, who have farms the soil of which does not con- 

 tain the requisite proportions of alumina and silica to regulate the moisture 

 of dry weather in summer, must seek to remedy the defect. Not only this, 

 but a further analysis shows that the soil of our sandy farms is also wanting 

 in a proper supply of lime, soda, potash, magnesia and certain other ingre- 

 dients of a first-class soil, which nature would have furnished had the requisite 

 amount of clay been present to retain whatever amounts of these substances 

 came from the vegetation that grew thereon. 



The latter deficiency is not so great, however, as is generally supposed, as 

 shown by some experiments made some years since by Prof. Kedzie, of the 

 Agricultural College, consisting of analyses of specimens of soil from about 

 thirty different localities, including some of the poorest as well as the 



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