32 THE BOOK OF THE APPLE 



former to be the case, then three-inch drain pipes 

 must be placed in rows about twenty feet apart, all 

 sloping into a main drain laid across the bottom of that 

 portion of the land towards which they slope. The 

 main drain will, of course, carry the water off the 

 land altogether. It generally happens that the pro- 

 spective cultivator is not able to procure just an ideal 

 piece of land, and he must therefore make it suitable by 

 artificial means. A soil that is a heavy, clayey loam can 

 be improved and made more amenable to culture, as can 

 also light and sandy soils. For such as the former, lime 

 rubble, road scrapings, and wood ashes are especially 

 beneficial they tend to make it more light and porous. 

 For a sandy soil that lacks what is perhaps best ex- 

 pressed by the technical term " body," leaf soil and 

 decayed vegetable refuse, small lumps of clay, and farm- 

 yard manure will much improve matters. In a heavy 

 soil, however, the great thing is to have thorough and 

 sufficient drainage. A good mulch of farmyard manure 

 during spring and summer is absolutely essential to 

 satisfactory results if apple trees are upon an unusually 

 light soil, for it prevents evaporation, and thereby keeps 

 the roots much more moist than would be possible 

 without such a covering. The autumn is the best 

 time to improve the condition of the land, and land 

 that is unsuitable for the cultivation of the apple 

 should be made suitable before the trees are planted 

 by the methods above mentioned. 



In any case, the ground that is intended for dwarf 

 trees upon the Paradise stock should be trenched from 

 two to three feet deep if this has not been recently 

 done. 



SUMMER TREATMENT 



The weather experienced during the summer will to 

 a large extent determine the amount of work to be 



