146 One Thousand Questions in Agriculture 



process. During the summer a good surface application of stable 

 manure to which water can be applied would be better than to work 

 manure into the soil, which should be done at the beginning of the 

 rainy season. As your soil is so shallow it will be well for you to 

 stand along the side of the plant much of the time with a bucket 

 of water in one hand and a shovel of manure in the other. 



Planting Trees in Alkali Soil. 



My land contains a considerable quantity of both the black and white 

 alkalies, the upper .two feet being a rather heavy, sticky clay, the next 

 three feet below being tine sand, containing more or less alkali, while 

 immediately underneath this sand is a dense black muck in which, sum- 

 mer and winter, is found the ground-water. Do you think the following 

 method of setting trees would be advantageous. Excavate for each tree 

 a hole three feet in diameter and three feet deep. Fill in a layer of three 

 or four inches of coarse hay, forming a lining for the excavation. Then 

 ■fill the hole zvith sandy loam in ivhich the tree is to be set. The sandy 

 loam zuould give the young tree a good start, while the lining of hay 

 would break up the capillary attraction between the Ulled-in sand and 

 the ground-zvater in the surrounding alkali-charged soil. 



The fresh soil which you put in would before long be impreg- 

 nated through the surface evaporation of the rising moisture, which 

 your straw lining would not long exclude. The trees would not be 

 permanently satisfactory under such conditions as you describe, 

 though they might grow well at first. It would be interesting, of 

 course, to make a small-scale experiment to demonstrate what would 

 actually occur and it would, perhaps, give you a chance to sell out 

 to a tenderfoot. 



Planting in Mud. 



Why does ground lose its vitality or its growing qualities when it is 

 plowed or stirred zvlicn zvet, and does this act in all kinds of soil in the 

 same way? We are planting a fig and olive orchard at the present time, 

 but some zvcre planted zvhen the ground was extremely zvet. The holes 

 were dug before the rain and after a heavy rain they started to plant. 

 After placing the trees in the holes they filled them half full zvith wet 

 dirt, in fact so zvet that it was actually slush. What would you advise 

 under the circumstances and zvhat can be done to counteract thisf We 

 have not finished filling in the holes since the planting zvas done, which 

 was about a week ago. 



The soil loses its vitality after working when too wet, because 

 it is thrown into bad mechanical (or physical) condition and there- 

 fore becomes difficult of root extension and of movement of moist- 

 ure and air. How easily soil may be thrown into bad mechanical 

 condition depends upon its character. A light sandy loam could be 

 plowed and trees planted as you describe without serious injury per- 

 haps, while such a treatment of a clay would bring a plant into the 

 midst of a soil brick which would cause it to spindle and perhaps 



