• THE MONTHLY BULLETTISr. 421 



Summary. 



To sum up, healthy plants exist only in a rich loam soil. The ditch and 

 soil tester give the necessary knowledge. Soil texture and composition 

 must be right. Cover crops, stable fertilizer and commercial fertilizers 

 are very important. Humus, potash, nitrogen, lime, and phosphoric 

 acid must abound. Hardpan is a serious obstacle ; alkali is also inimical 

 to success. Right water content is a sine qua non to great productivity. 

 Aeration is a prime factor in successful ranching. To neglect the dry 

 earth mulch is to court failure. 



Chairman Powell. This subject will now "be open for discussion. 

 This is a very interesting subject — one of the most interesting that could 

 come before any convention of agricultural producers in California. 

 There is less known about the soils and what can be done Avith the soils 

 in our irrigated countries than Avitli any other thing that the farmer or 

 producer has to deal with. In our country, in the south, we can go out 

 among any of our best fruit growers and ask them wliat particular fertil- 

 izer they use, and we get a hundred different replies. Ask them what 

 the best method of distributing water is, the depth of irrigation and how 

 much it varies, and the amount of application, and you are likely to get a 

 hundred different points of view. Or if you ask them about the use of 

 cover crops, or almost any other one factor connected with the produc- 

 tion of the crop, you will get as many points of view as you will get men 

 to express them, and yet a large proportion of these men using different 

 methods may be equally successful, and so this subject of soil and culti- 

 vation is one of infinite controversy, because many of the fundamental 

 principles connected with soil handling and soil management are still 

 only in the infancy of existence. We have in the south a great many soil 

 difficulties. My experience when in the citrus work always seems to be 

 difficulties in the handling and management of the soils. That is physio- 

 logical troubles of fruit trees, due to the improper handling of fertilizers 

 or cultivation or irrigation or hardpan or various other things which tip 

 over the neutral balance of the plant itself. So this question of soil 

 handling and soil management is as varied as any that will be met with 

 or that will come before any body of producers anywhere in California, 

 and so this subject will be open now for discussion, and I hope a number 

 of you will take part. I shall call upon Mr. Chapman to open this dis- 

 cussion. 



Mr. Chapman: Mr. Chairman and gentlemen: This is a splendid 

 paper, to be part of a book which we need in California. It is a book Ave 

 need, especially our citrus fruit groAvers need a manual of this kind. I 

 am approached almost every day Avith newcomers Avanting a treatise, 

 AA-anting some instructions about citrus fruit culture, and we have none. 

 So I want to thank you, doctor, for making this contribution to this 

 great industry and I knoAV it will meet with a larg^e sale. 



Dr. Cook. It is to be a gift to the State, it won 't be for sale. 



