TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 



113 



The writer of the report ascribes the result to two things : 



First ; the tilled trees were better watered. 



Frequent tests of soil moisture during- the growing months 

 showed that the tilled land had in the first six inches 10,500 

 gfallons of water to the acre jnorc than the sod land, and in the 

 first twelve inches 16,300 gallons more. In the year following 

 the figures were 8,500 and 13,800 respectively more of water in 

 the tilled than in the sod land. His figures show that what is 

 true of other crops is also true in orchards, i.e., the seasonal 

 rainfall is not enough to meet the full need of an apple or- 

 chard. If the soil, by proper handling, is not made a storage 

 reservoir of water the fruit crop will generally sufifer. If this 

 rainfall, small as it is, is divided between two crops, one or 

 the other, or both, are likely to sufl:"er. 



It is quite likely, too, that insufficient water means in- 

 sufficient food, for water is the means of dissolving and car- 

 rying the mineral plant food. That there was sufficient food 

 on both plots to meet the crop requirements when there was 

 enough water, the fertilizer test indicates. But on sod land 

 there was not enough water. 



Second : As further tests proved, the land which was 

 tilled and had a cover crop each year contained somewhat 

 more humus than the sod land and had all the advantages 

 which the extra quantity of humus brings with it. The 

 whole account of this experiment, which I cannot fully sum- 

 marize here, is worth careful study by orohardists. 



I must quote the closing paragraph : 



**To manage the soil of an orchard properly requires 

 nice adjustments and delicate balancing for each particular 

 case. Soils vary much and all are complex, quite diverse 

 chemical, physical and biological changes take place in di- 

 verse soils. Everv apple-grower, therefore, has a problem 

 of his own. But the individual problem can be best solved 

 bv the rational application of the ordinary laws of nutrition 

 and growth — those which apply to cultivated plants in gen- 

 eral. The apple is most unique among plants." 



