HOW TO GROW AND MARKET FRUIT 



small open spaces between particles will hold enormous quan- 

 tities of water. If, then, we break up these open spaces on the 

 surface next the atmosphere, we shall prevent the water from 

 passing off by evaporation. 



"The whole subject of saving moisture, therefore, falls 

 into two means. The catching and holding of it (or the making 

 of a reservoir), and the prevention of evaporation. The first 

 thing to do, therefore, is to plow or loosen up the soil and sub- 

 soil to a sufficient depth. When we have the water, we must 

 then work the surface in such a way that we can keep it. 



"It will thus be seen how useless it is to try to save the 

 water by beginning tillage when a drought is threatened. If 

 the land has not been prepared, there will be little water to 

 save by that time. It will either have soaked away through 

 the soil into drains, or it will have evaporated long before the 

 need of it was noticed. 



"The hardpan may be so near the surface that but little 

 water will stay in the soil. The dish-pan formed by it is so 

 shallow that the spring and early summer rains make mud 

 puddles on the surface and pass off before the water is needed 

 by the trees. Such soil needs to be plowed very deeply, and 

 the subsoil broken up to increase the storage capacity for 

 water. 



"If the soil is sandy, soft and leachy, shallow breaking up 

 is the thing needed. Such soil may be loosened too much. 

 The water-storage capacity of soils may be increased by mixing 

 humus or vegetable matter with them. It will thus be seen 

 that the methods of conserving or saving moisture for the time 

 when it is needed by the trees or plants must be thought out 

 and worked out by each grower for his own place. 



"Any body or substance which is interposed between the 

 air and moist soil will prevent evaporation of the moisture. 

 The ground is moist underneath a board, so is it underneath 

 a layer of sawdust or of ashes; and so is it underneath a layer 

 of two or three inches of fine, dry earth. Shallow cultivation 

 will make a mulch of this kind on the surface. The orchardist 

 should work the land as often as it begins to get hard and 

 crusted as a fit statement, it may be said that fruit lands 

 ought to be worked every ten days, also after every rain, before 

 a crust forms. Land allowed to lie bare over winter will weather 

 rapidly, but clay-lands of a lighter nature will gully badly.'* 



Land which lies rough-ploughed over winter will take up lots 

 of water, but no more than it will if it is covered with crimson 

 clover, peas, vetch, rye, or any other cover crop, and these 

 crops have many other invaluable advantages. Cover crops 

 save moisture. They must be put in during July; then, by the 

 time the plants begin to draw water, the trees do not need it, 

 in fact, should be checked. Then, if the crop is of a kind not 

 killed by the winter, it will grow up very rank in the spring 

 and help dry off the land early by absorbing water. It always 

 must be plowed under early in spring about as soon as the 

 ground is fit to work or it will rob the trees of water and 

 food, and do much more damage than it does good. 



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