Feeding the Land 191 



ctiltivator through the com, the orchard, the vine- 

 yard, the berry patch, you conserve moisture for 

 the plant-roots. This ordinarily, but the time 

 may come when cultivation is but stirring the 

 dust. Then water is in order, not a sprinkling, but 

 the soaking of the soil, deep, copious, complete. 

 Afterward, and as soon as you can work the land, 

 stir it thoroughly with cultivator or hoe ; you will 

 thus put a cover over it and prevent the thirsty 

 sun and the greedy wind from draining it as dry 

 as hay. This thorough cultivation is only a form 

 of siurface drainage. Somewhat curious to say, 

 soil, to be most productive, must be drained top 

 and bottom. The composition of the earth is not 

 of great importance; loam, clay, gravel, stone, or 

 sand, if doubly drained, and supplied with soluble 

 plant-food, and located within the climate belt for 

 fruit, — such land, various in context, is ideal and 

 will produce fruit of finest quality and in great 

 quantity. Such a soil is a chemical laboratory 

 which turns out apples, cherries, grapes, peaches, 

 prunes, pears, currants, and berries of every kind. 

 Nature is economical and thrifty, ever providing 

 for her own at long range. In any fruit valley the 

 preparation for fruit-farming has been going on for 

 millions of years. What an inconceivable tonnage 

 of ripened foliage, leaf, stem, stalk, of fruit itself, 

 has fallen to earth in this Valley and become plant- 

 food ! What an immeasurable atmosphere has fed 

 this upper world of plant life! And what incom- 

 putable weight of mineral matter in the earth has 



