METHODS OF KEEPING MOISTURE 



clover, more water will be needed. Care must be used in dry 

 sections and seasons to mow the grass sufficiently early in 

 spring, and to keep it mowed more or less close to prevent it 

 drawing too much water from the soil. It must be remembered 

 that the necessary eighteen inches or more of rainfall must 

 come between the spring breakup and August i, and not in 

 a whole year. This method certainly takes less work than 

 cultivation. It should be considered by every one where con- 

 ditions warrant its use. Thorough underdrainage should 

 accompany it. 



SUMMARY 



Trees must not have wet feet. The level of stagnant water 

 in soil must be, at the very least, two or three feet down, if 

 trees are to bear worth while. 



Too much water destroys friendly bacteria that are necessary 

 to put plant foods into forms in which trees can use them. 



Too much water renders plant food useless by changing it 

 chemically and by caking soil. 



Carefully laid underdrains are almost an orchard necessity, 

 and do good in many ways. 



Breaking up hardpan helps drainage. Cover crops help to 

 dry off land in early spring. 



Apple trees must have at least enough water to make a layer 

 a foot deep, and this must be held in the top thirty-six inches 

 of soil. Other fruits can get along with slightly less, but must 

 have enough. 



Too little water starves trees directly by allowing them to 

 dry up, and to even a greater extent by making it impossible 

 for roots to get the food in the soil. Plant foods and fertilizers are 

 of no use unless they continually are accompanied by enough 

 moisture to dissolve them and insure that they soak to the roots. 



There is always enough rainfall between March and August 

 to grow big crops, if it is rightly conserved. Right methods 

 make this easy, wrong methods make it impossible. 



To store enough water, ground must be broken up deeply, 

 thoroughly and often; and to avoid its escape the surface 

 must be worked and kept in a dust mulch, to prevent evapora- 

 tion during the growing season, if other mulch is not used. This 

 conservation tillage must begin early in spring, while ground is 

 still damp, and must be done every ten days or after every rain 

 till in July or August. 



Organic matter in the soil helps to hold moisture. 



With sod-mulch systems, the grass must be mowed often to 

 prevent its using up the moisture intended to be saved. 



