EVIDENCE OF HISTORY 271 



They assert that this same soil responds 

 readily to commercial fertilizers for garden 

 crops and they explain the apparently contrary 

 results in fruit growing by saying that the 

 apple gets its food over a long season of 

 growth; its roots run deeper and feed over a 

 wide range; it transpires relatively large 

 amounts of water, and can gather food from 

 more dilute solutions than annual crops, and 

 that its leaves return to the earth that pro- 

 duced them. 



This bulletin, for all that its authors take 

 a middle ground, was not well received by 

 the agricultural press. In fact, it received as 

 scant attention from the farm editors as has 

 the federal Bureau of Soils hypothesis. In 

 the face of the established facts of this test, 

 one editor stated that "it is believed the ex- 

 perience of fruit growers is to the contrary." 



