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Upon the President resuming the chair, Mr. Beall, Lindsay, read the following paper : 

 THE FRUIT GARDEN. 



" What soil, and what conditions of the surface soil would best conduce to the 

 proper development §>i apple trees ?" 



While the apple tree is being so generally and often so successfully cultivated 

 throughout the country, it seems unnecessary to give any minute description of a suitable 

 soil for that purpose. The general intelligence of our people has led to the establish- 

 ment of the idea that land, which will produce a good crop of wheat or barley, ought to 

 be suitable for an orchard, and in this they are mainly correct, as the cause of failure is 

 not so much in the kind of soil selected as in the lack of knowledge as to the preparation 

 and after treatment of the surface soil. 



A large portion of the surface soil in Ontario is of a clayey formation, and is usually 

 described as clay, clay loam, sandy loam, loamy clay, ikc, but which may be described 

 generally as calcareous clay, with a gi-eater or less quantity of humus or vegetable 

 admixture. 



The fertility of such a soil depends largely on its physical properties, perhaps more 

 so than on the chemical combination of its elements. In its natural state, where clay 

 predominates — and it generally does with us — its power of cohesion is so great that it 

 will not readily permit water to percolate through it, it has but little power to absorb 

 moisture by capillary attraction, to absorb gases, or to retain heat. The physical proper- 

 ties of this soil must, therefore, be materially changed, before apple trees can make such 

 liealthy and vigorous growth as to make their cultivation remunerative. 



The conditions of the soil which seem to offer the best promise of success are : first, 

 that it shall contain the necessary combination of chemical elements, and then that the 

 surface soil should, by mechanical means, be made incohesive, permeable, friable and 

 mellow, to the depth of eighteen inches or two feet, and that it should be dark coloured, 

 and also that ample provision be made by underdraining or otherwise, for the percolation 

 and carrying oflF of all superfluous water, then it will readily appropriate from the atmos- 

 phere the three great desiderates of vegetable growth, air, heat and moisture. Trees 

 planted in such a soil will have ample room for the ramification of their roots for a very 

 long period of time, and if the soil, by mechanical means, is kept in the state indicated 

 for eight or ten years after planting, the trees will not decay through loss of a large por- 

 tion of their lower roots, by rotting in stagnant water, as is frequently the case in 

 undrained soil. 



In the spring of the year, the season of growth will commence much earlier in land 

 so prepared. The under-drains will have carried off all superfluous water early, and 

 therefore, its warmth will not be lessened by evaporation from the surface. On the con- 

 trary, it will be enabled to absorb and digest the warm spi'ing rains and the sun's rays 

 from two to three weeks earlier than soils left in a state of nature, or if only cultivated 

 to the depth of a few inches. As a proof of how readily a suitably prepared soil will ab- 

 sorb moisture even in the early spring, I may mention that, on the 26th of April, 1880, 

 between four and five o'clock in the afternoon, and while the thermometer stood at about 

 60° Fah., rain fell to the depth of 29 inches, which will be about 32 tons of water to the acre ; 

 every drop of this, which fell on a portion of my garden that had been, for some years, in 

 a high state of cultivation, was entirely absorbed, while uncultivated land, but a few rods 

 distant, did not absorb any perceptable portion. Here then, wa^ a large quantity of 

 water, heated by its passage through the atmosphere to nearly 60° Fah., passing quickly 

 into, the soil, taking with it a portion of the soluble part of the manure which had been 

 liberally applied to its surface, thereby assisting greatly to raise the temperature of the 

 soil to the point at which the germination of seeds and growth of rootlets commences ; 

 namely, to about 53° Fah. The next day this piece of land was sufficiently dry for 

 working. 



Colour too has much to do with the temperature of the soil, and it is easily shown 

 that a dark soil will absorb heat and retain it much better than a light one. If two 



5 (f. G.) 



