FERTILITY OF ORCHARDS. 



109 



feet in a single season, and those unculti- 

 vated only about three inches. Burrill had 

 made a test and found 12 per cent, of water 

 in cultivated soil, and only 8 per cent, in 

 that which- had run to grass. 



Constant Cultivation is necessary to get the 

 best results ; cultivation that will stir every 

 particle of soil, to a depth of two or three 

 inches. Granted that the soil in spring is 

 saturated, then you should have twelve 

 inches of rain during the season to keep up 

 the supply. Husband this rain by tillage 

 and give your tree the moisture needed for 

 best results. Late fall ploughing tends to 

 increase the supply, while early spring culti- 

 vation breaks the capillarity and saves the 

 moisture by an earth mulch. Then every 

 rain tends to compact the surface soil and 

 encourage rapid evaporation ; therefore the 

 importance of at once cultivating the soil, 

 after every rain, to prevent a serious loss of 

 moisture. 



Even Cover Crops tend to draw moisture 

 from the soil, and therefore should be 

 ploughed in as early as possible in the spring. 



Kellog, of Michigan, had found oats sown 

 in July or August the best cover crop to 

 supply humus to the land and protect the 

 roots of the trees from winter killing, be- 

 cause the oat plants are dead in the spring, 

 and therefore do not draw moisture at that 

 season. Their excellence as a cover crop 

 had been shown by Prof. Taft, of the Michi- 

 gan Agricultural College, 



Hitchings was an advocate of sod for 

 orchards. He had adopted this system for 

 years with success, but every summer he 

 had mulched the trees heavily with cut grass 

 or some such material. He had in this way 

 encouraged his trees to root near to the 

 surface, where they could easily drink in the 

 least shower of rain, which could not per- 

 colate down to the deeper rooted trees. His 

 soil was clay loam, very stoney. 



Secrets of Success. — This important sub- 

 ject of Soil Fertility was still farther em- 

 phasized by Prof. Roberts, of Cornell Uni- 



versity. Tillage and cover crops are, in his 

 opinion, the two great secrets of success in 

 orcharding. In clay soil there were too 

 many large and too few small particles, and, 

 for such soil, lime was beneficial because it 

 tended to flocculate the small particles, 

 and thus make it more open. Heavy rains 

 tend to seal up a heavy clay surface, 

 but surface tillage unseals the lumps. 

 If, after a heavy rain, we cultivate and form 

 a loose earth mulch of dry soil, the moisture 

 from below will only rise to the bottom of it. 

 This constant cultivation, besides protecting 

 the soil from loss of water, is a most 

 efficient agent in setting free plant food. 



Commercial Fertilizers Not Always Needed. — 

 In fact there is in the soil, locked up, an 

 abundance of plant food, and, if we only 

 possessed the means of unlocking it and 

 getting it out, we could sell fertilizers to 

 the fertilizer dealers at their own price and 

 make enough money to endow a college. 

 The key to this, to a large extent, consists 

 in constant tillage. Cover crops are useful 

 by furnishing humus, and by helfiing to se- 

 cure nitrification. 



The physical condition of the soil. Prof. 

 Roberts declared, was more important to 

 tree growth than the addition of commercial 

 fertilizers, for unless the soil is in proper 

 condition, fertilizers will be wasted. 



The St. Louis World's Fair was spoken of 

 by Mr. A. W. Taylor at the Rochester 

 meeting, who drew especial attention to the 

 grand provision for horticulture in the mag- 

 nificent combined building for Agriculture, 

 Horticulture and Dairying, which was to 

 cover an area of thirty-three acres — the 

 largest building m the world of its kind. 



Tlie Anjou Pear was shown at Rochester 

 by Messrs. Ellwanger and Barry and, as 

 usual, the samples were magnificent. Sev- 

 eral commercial packages of this pear were 

 also shown ; they were put up in a box 

 10 X 10 X 18 inches, each containing forty- 

 two pears. The smallest of these pears 

 measured 2^ inches in diameter, and the 



