GENERAL PRACTICE. PREPARING SOILS. 37 



to the requirements of the trees. Mere digging or scratching the surface is not cultiva- 

 tion. "We do not want to see manures wasted on close sour land and their virtues 

 washed into the unbroken strata beneath the surface to be eaten by acids, but a good 

 depth of healthy soil ever ready to meet the demands of the roots catering in it for the 

 equally hungry leaves and all-important fruit. 



Sandy soils are, as a rule, too not and dry for the profitable cultivation of many fruits. 

 They have not sustaining power in droughty periods to maintain the requisite vigour of 

 the trees, and without artificial applications of moisture and a somewhat lavish expen- 

 diture in manure do not afford satisfactory crops of fruit. These soils are improved 

 permanently by an addition of pounded clayey loam, especially of clay marl, as sands are 

 mostly deficient in lime. The clay will not be overdone on hot, dry, gravelly soils, at 

 the rate of a cartload per rod of 30 J square yards; when the soil is very sandy, usually 

 one hundred cartloads of clay marl (and it is often found beneath sandy soils) per acre is 

 sufficient to give the requisite tenacity and retentive power for the profitable growth of 

 wheat, than which no better criterion can be had of land suitable for the production of 

 fruit. Good wheat-growing soil is a good fruit staple. The clay or marl should be 

 spread on the surface ; heat will dry it and it will fall after rain, and frost penetrating 

 it will insure its pulverisation falling on thawing. It is improved by either or both of 

 these processes. "Work the soil to a depth of two feet, keeping the ameliorated portion 

 at the top, but disturbing the under-stratum, even if it has to be done with a pickaxe, 

 and mix the clay evenly throughout. This may be done in summer, autumn, or spring. 

 "Winter is the worst time possible, and a few weeks anterior to planting is the best. 

 Where clay marl is not to be had, chalk may be used advantageously as a direct means 

 of affording lime and rendering the soil more retentive of moisture. It may be spread 

 on the surface to get broken by frost, then spread and dug in. This, along with clayey 



% 



loam, in about equal proportions at the rate of a cartload per rod, will make a too sandy 

 soil suitable for fruit. If any manure is thought necessary, it should be fresh, prefer- 

 ably that from the cow stable, as most durable and retentive of moisture, but manure 

 generally is best reserved for surface dressings. 



Intermediate soils, or loams of a friable nature, neither sandy nor clayey, but a 

 happy union of many mixtures, will merely require stirring to a depth of two feet, and 

 the bottom picked up or forked. This must be done effectually ; for no slipshod mode of 

 operations should be allowed in fruit culture. If the soil be uniformly good to a depth 

 of two feet, it may be fully trenched, the top spit turned to the bottom, and the under 



