HOW TO GROW AND MARKET FRUIT 



way. With the pipe on supports, a fine rain will fall whenever 

 the water is turned on. 



Plants and trees require from three hundred to five hundred 

 pounds of water for every pound of dry matter grown. But that 

 does not tell wha f we want to know how much water fruit 

 trees need. The following statements are based on long and 

 careful experiments made in America, England and Germany. 



Trees use water in two ways by putting it into fruit and 

 leaves, and by evaporation through the leaves. A stream of 

 water constantly flows up every growing tree and evaporates 

 through the leaves. 



Apples need about three times as much water as peaches, 

 and other fruits come between the two. To grow one ton of 

 green timothy requires more than one hundred and fifty tons 

 of water. Apples and apple leaves are more juicy than timothy 

 stalks. If we take one hundred barrels (250 bushels) of apples 

 as the yield per acre, we have a little more than six tons of 

 fruit. The leaves and new wood on an acre would weigh at 

 least a ton, so seven tons is a fair average of the weight of the 

 orchard product from one acre. 



If apples use water at the same rate as timothy, the trees 

 on one acre will require ten hundred and fifty tons of water, 

 which would make a layer more than nine inches deep. 



The average rainfall between March and August, in all 

 fruit regions of this country which do not depend upon irriga- 

 tion, varies from fifteen to twenty inches. That moisture 

 which comes before March the frozen crust prevents from 

 soaking into the soil; that coming after August is of no use to 

 the crop. There is no way of determining how much evapo- 

 rates from the soil or how much drains away; what is known 

 is that nine inches must be kept for the use of trees, cr the 

 crop will suffer. 



Most of the feeding roots of fruit trees or vines are in the 

 first thirty-six inches of soil. Anchor roots go deeper, but 

 gather moisture and food for their own use only. This thirty- 

 six inches of soil must be loosened so it will contain at least 

 a foot of water, for allowance must be made for evaporation 

 throughout the summer. The first three feet must be even 

 looser than this, as the soil must contain a certain quantity 

 of air for the use of the roots. In other words, the first three 

 feet must consist of one foot of water and less than two feet 

 of earth. The exact number of inches does not matter; the 

 principle is to have enough water, with drainage to take care 

 of the surplus. 



The soil must be fine and loose; fine, because the smaller 

 the soil particles are, the more water will cling to them; loose 

 down deep, because the particles unite when they are packed, 

 squeezing the water out and preventing it from circulating. 

 Roots will not grow into solid masses of earth when they can 

 find their way into loose soil. 



Still another, and most important, reason for providing 

 plenty of moisture in the soil, is that moisture is necessary to 

 make the plant food available. The amount of this food in 



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