STATK POMOLOGTCAL SOCIETY. 89 



times weekly. The desideratum being to allow no crust to form 

 favorable to moisture dispersion, this was continued throughout 

 the growth of the crop. Although the season was unusually dry, 

 and the soil such as to be easily afifected by drouth, the potatoes 

 yielded a magnificent crop, both in size and quality. At all times 

 during the period named moist earth could be found within two 

 or three inches of the surface, while a half dozen feet away, on 

 either side, where no cultivation was practiced, the soil was desti- 

 tute of moisture for at least eighteen inches below the surface. 



Later in the season the same fact was emphasized when the 

 writer had an opportunity to witness orchard cultivation in the 

 far West, notably in California. There were observed tree- 

 breakmg crops of splendid fruit just adjoining others of the 

 same age, variety, and otherwise equally as well cared for except 

 in the cultivation given, the latter showing only partial crops of 

 inferior, shriveled fruit, all the way down to absolute crop fail- 

 ures in all cases correspondirig closely to the cultivation and arti- 

 ficial moisture supplied. The best results were evident in that 

 climate of constant sunshine and moisture-less atmosphere, 

 where a dust mulch of five or six inches was provided. It was 

 there also made evident that those depending on irrigation, with- 

 out much regard to cultivation, were often no better off than the 

 orchards unirrigated. The uninterrupted supply of moisture is 

 an absolute necessity for the best fruit results. Just as soon as 

 the supoly fails, the fruit begins a premature ripening which is 

 fatal to its perfect future development, even should its stem 

 remain unparted from the parent tree. 



The point I v/ould especially emphasize is that no one with an 

 orchard of bearing age, w^hich at its best is capable of realizing 

 its owner, in East or West, from $50 to $100 per acre, net, when 

 properly handled, can afford to convert the moisture rightly 

 belonging to the fruit into grass or other crops, or what is equally 

 bad for the fruit, allow the moisture to escape into the air 

 through the medium of a hard, uncultivated soil crust. — B. F. W. 

 Thorpe, in Country Gentleman. 



