NUTRITIVE VALUE OF NUTS, 



145 



than bare land. The moisture has been ex- 

 tracted from the soil by the crop. These are 

 admitted facts, not requiring illustration or 

 proof. What is their bearing upon the 

 methods of cultivation for orchards? 



Clean cultivation, as a means of conserv- 

 ing moisture in soils of orchards, is without 

 question the most effectual. This method 

 so clearly and fully meets the requirements 

 above referred to, maintaining a surface 

 mulch upon the soil to check evaporation, 

 and destroying weeds to prevent loss by 

 transpiration, that the matter need not be 

 argued further. Any fruit grower who al- 

 lows an extra crop to grow in his orchard is, 

 unless there is moisture enough for the pro- 

 per development of both fruit and the other 

 crop, sacrificing the interests of his orchard. 

 Where a sodded orchard, for instance, is 

 found to be generally more satisfactory than 

 the cultivated orchard, that locality must 

 possess an abundance of rainfall for both 

 purposes. This abundance does not gen- 

 erally prevail in Ontario, and it should be 

 seriously considered, at all fruit sections in 

 Ontario, if clean cultivation is not the most 

 profitable method. 



For the year round, and for all purposes 

 relating to moisture, clean cultivation for the 

 summer, and a cover crop sown in the early 

 fall and plowed down in the spring, together 



make the best method for orchard tillage. 

 The advantages of the combined methods 

 are : 



(i) By clean cultivation in the summer 

 the loss of soil moisture, through evapora- 

 tion and transpiration, may be checked ; the 

 moisture present in the soil being thereby 

 saved for developing and maturing the fruit. 



(2) Summer cultivation may cease, and 

 the cover crop be sown, earlier or later, ac- 

 cording to the season. If it is a wet, cold 

 season, like that of 1902, cultivation should 

 cease and the cover crop should be sown 

 earlier than usual in order to dry out the 

 land, and thus serve a double purpose : to 

 mature the new wood on the trees, and to 

 ripen and color the fruit. 



(3) The cover crop, as was mentioned m 

 the previous article of this series, is a pro- 

 tection to the tree roots in the winter, and 

 checks surface washing. 



(4) The cover crop, especially if it is a 

 crop that winters over, dries out the land 

 somewhat in the spring and thus allows ear- 

 lier cultivation. This finally results in the 

 saving of soil moisture. 



(5) The cover crop, when plowed down 

 and incorporated with the soil, enriches the 

 soil and improves its texture, and thus event- 

 ually increases its power to absorb and to 

 retain moisture. 



NUTRITIVE VALUE OF NUTS 



IT has been asserted in the scientific 

 journals of Europe, within the past two 

 or three years, on the authority of chemists 

 and dietary experts, that the nutritive pro- 

 perties of nuts entitle them to a much higher 

 price than they now occupy as an article of 

 food. They even assert that if all other 

 means of nutriment were cut off man could 



support life on the nut crop of the world. 

 This statement has also been made in some 

 of the best school text-books of Europe, and 

 it appears in a school book recently published 

 in this country. The rising generation seems 

 likely, therefore, to have a higher opinion 

 of the utility, of nuts than their fathers 

 entertained. — Sun. 



