ANNUAL MEETING AT LEXINGTON. 191 



and to a depth corresponding to its extraction from below the surface 

 of the ground surface. It lacks a little in potash to make it best. It 

 is covered over generally — in its new state — with an uneven surface 

 called hog wallows, created not by hogs, but by the soil cracking — 

 shrinking, and in time having the appearance of being made by hogs ; 

 and it does the same ttiihg to-day where our crops are not properly 

 cultivated. It is a soil that retains its moisture M^ell, and it will raise 

 large crops when vf ell cultivated. This year has been the dryest one 

 since I have been in Texas. It has tried us severely, and those who 

 have trusted to God and nature, without a continual stiring of the 

 soil, have come very short of a crop of anything, and those who have 

 been constantly stirring the soil in drouth, have reaped a full and rich 

 reward for their labors. 



In fruits generally this season they were two or four weeks late 

 in blooming. The drouth struck us in June. Grapes were very small 

 on land not cultivated extremely well; no rot, but little mildew; 

 early varieties ripened well until the last of July, though small; 

 August ripening varieties did not ripen until the last of September. 

 The leaves dried up and fell off in September and an entire new growth 

 started in September of the vine and blossomed some this fall. Some 

 peach, apple and pear trees also blossomed again this fall from the 

 same cause. The Vitis Rotundifolia variety of grapes did not shed 

 their leaves at all, but remained green to the end of the season. 



In pears, they were late ; Bartlett's ripened in September — some on 

 the trees in October ; Duchess in October ; LeConte later than usual ; 

 Lawrence and Keiffer ripened in November ; fruits generally small this 

 year, but where there was continued cultivation in our orchards our 

 fiuits and fruit trees and vines have done well. For Texas I recom- 

 mend tbe constant stirring of the top soil every eight or ten days dur- 

 ing the months of June, July and August, so as to prevent the evapo- 

 ration of moisture from the soil, both for fruits, trees and vinyards. 

 Without moisture in the soil we get no crops; without continued cul- 

 tivation of our crops in a dry season like the past, we keep but very 

 little moisture in the soil for growing our crops. 



The planter should strive to retain in the soil all the moisture nec- 

 essary for growing crops to be grown, and this he can do to a great 

 extent if he will only use all proper means at his command to do it. 

 Cultivation acts beneficially in other directions, for, by losening of the 

 soil, it allows the air and warmth to penetrate more readily to the 

 roots of our growing crops. Eain, as it falls, is taken up by the soil 

 and it is carried down by the power of gravitation. This continued 



