The Canadian Horticulturist. 235 



The question arises, how to make the best use of and how to conserve this 

 stored-up water, which finally contains all the nutritious material which enters 

 into the circulation of the plant. Thin seeding assists materially in the con- 

 servation of moisture. Plants usually suffer in the middle and latter part of the 

 summer, when they are trying to produce fruit. If too many plants are growing 

 upon the surface the land will already have been robbed of its moisture before 

 the fruiting season, and a failure to produce satisfactory seeds and fruits is 

 inevitable. 



Another method of conserving moisture is to shade the land, but if this is 

 done with growing crops, as clover and the like, the amount of water which is 

 evaporated from the leaves is greater than that which is conserved by the shading- 

 So, where the object is to conserve the moisture for the use of the tree when it 

 is fruiting, it is not wise to have growing crops in the orchard. 



Mulching of the soil with straw or other coarse material cannot be practised 

 in any large way, and, therefore, little dependence can be placed on this method. 

 In bearing orchards this should be done, if at all, about the last of June. The 

 conservation of moisture by surface cultivation has been found eminently sue 

 cessful. The enlarging of the capillary tubes at the surface prevents the water 

 from rising ; the loose upper layer shades the land and keeps it cool, thereby 

 preventing to a large extent surface evaporation. 



Some experiments conducted during the winter in a warm room out of the 

 direct rays of the sun, gave the following results : 



I. On plots cultivated about one and a half inches deep, less water by 

 2,000 pounds evaporated daily from an acre of soil than from plots of a similar 

 character and under identical conditions, which had not surface culture. 2. On 

 a heavy clay soil the evaporation from the cultivated plot in a day was 4,000 

 pounds less per acre than from the uncultivated plot. 3. On a clay loam evap- 

 oration was 4,400 pounds less in a day. 4. On a light garden soil it was 2,500 

 less than on the cultivated plot per acre than on that which was not cultivated. 



It will readily be seen what a vast influence the daily cultivation had on 

 the moisture of the soil. Some experiments conducted several years ago with 

 a mixture of equal parts by weight of salt and plaster applied to the land at the 

 rate of 4,000 pounds to the acre, conserved the moisture of the first four inches 

 to the amount of fifteen tons of water per acre — that is to say, the soil which 

 had been treated with this mixture contained, about two weeks after the mixture 

 had been sown, fifteen tons of water per acre in the first four inches more than 

 the adjoining plots which were not treated. This amount of water, it is true, is 

 not large, but it was large enough during a drought, when the experiments were 

 conducted, to furnish enough extra moisture to the growing oats to he easily 

 discernible by the growth of the plant. There is not the slightest doubt that a 

 weekly surface cultivation of orchards, from June until the last of August, helps 

 materially to save the water in the soil, while at the same time culture sets free 



