THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 

 will be an inspiration. He says : 



The whole theory of successful soil 

 culture consists in selling water, because 

 it is the cheapest gift to man. The 

 grain farmer cuts great chunks off the 

 plant food in the soil and sends it away, 

 so does the potato grower, the market 

 gardener, the hay farmer, and, so to a 

 less extent, the dairyman. The fruit 

 grower keeps most of his plant food at 

 home and sells water just as truly as 

 though he tapped the spring and piped 

 its water down into the market, only the 

 the fruit basket takes the place of pipes. 



Fruit culture is one thing that enables 

 us to sell watered stock and satisfy our 

 customers. Disguised in the luscious 

 strawberry, bloopiing raspberry, ebony 

 blackberry, or beneath the rpsy skin of 

 some one of our delicious tree fruits 

 water finds a ready market at prices that 

 leave " millions in it " for the one who 

 most skillfully assists Nature in "turn- 

 ing water into wine " (fruits). Every 

 season occurs the apparent miracle of 

 turning water, often impure and un- 

 wholesome, into rich and healthful 

 fruits, which are "absolutely pure," and 

 free from germs or microbes. 



How best and most economically to 

 assist Nature in the work, and reap the 

 greatest rewards, is the question. How 

 shall the watercourses be turned into 

 the channels of tree, plant, and vine, 

 and help to turn the wheels of fruit cul. 

 ture in such a way as to give the best 

 final results ? 



A deep ploughing and a thorough 

 pulverization of the soil will make it 

 capable of holding much more water 

 than before. A cubic foot of soil will 

 hold, after being pulverized, a hundred 

 times as much water as the soil would 

 before. This water will be taken up by 

 the roots of your fruit trees and so will 

 swell up your fruit. If you cannot 



keep enough moisture in the soil by pul- 

 verizing you will have to try to do it by 

 mulching and if you cannot do it by 

 mulching, then by irrigation, but let me 

 say that you cannot irrigate a large tract 

 with windmills and tanks. 



Just at present a bushel of apples, 

 wheat, or potatoes sells for about the 

 same price, $i for 60 pounds. In the 

 apples we sell i ounce nitrogeon, i%! 

 ounces potash, and ^ ounce phosphoric 

 acid, which costs i ^ cents, leaving 98^ 

 cents for the water. Potatoes take from 

 the farm 4 ounces nitrogen, 2 ounces 

 phosphoric acid, and nearly 5 ounces 

 potash, valued at 6j^ cents, leaving 

 93^ cents for the water. The bushel 

 of wheat has i>^ pounds nitrogen, 10 

 ounces phosphoric acid, and 5 of potash, 

 worth 30^ cents, leaving only 69^ 

 cents for the water. Fifteen bushels of 

 apples take no more plant food from the 

 soil than one bushel of wheat, yet 

 bottled up under their bright skin you 

 can sell 765 pounds of water for $14.77 ! 

 To sell the same amount of water in 

 wheat would take 84 bushels, or the 

 product of five average acres, while the 

 apples would come from one well grown 

 and well nurtured tree. Eighteen 

 pounds water, y^^ ounce nitrogen, Yi 

 ounce potash, and so little phosphoric 

 acid that you cannot see it with a micro- 

 scope, all costing less than ^ a cent, 

 make 10 quarts of strawberries, that sell 

 for $1, the same as the bushel of wheat, 

 which takes sixty times as much plant 

 food from the soil. Selling water in a 

 strawberry basket enriches both the farm 

 and the farmer. 



My trial bed and test plot of straw- 

 berries is on medium sandy loam soil, 

 well pulverized to the depth of 15 inches, 

 then subirrigated by ^-inch perforated 

 iron pipes, lying 6 feet apart, i foot 

 below the surface. Every condition is 

 as favorable as I know how to make it 



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