150 One Thousand Questions tn Agriculture 



Whether you need dynamite or not depends upon the condition 

 of the sub-soil. If you are on river flats with an alluvial soil, rather 

 loose to a considerable depth, dynamiting is not necessary. If, by 

 digging, you encounter hardpan, or clay, dynamiting may be very 

 profitable. This matter must be looked into, because the failure of 

 trees on river lands is more often due to their planting over gravel 

 streaks, which too rapidly draw of? water and cause the tree to fail 

 for lack of moisture. In such cases dynamite would only aggravate 

 the trouble. Dynamiting should be done in the fall and not in the 

 spring. The land should have a chance to settle and readjust itself 

 by the action of the winter rains; otherwise, your trees may dry out 

 too much next summer. 



Improving Heavy Soils. 



What is adobe? What kind of plants zvill grozv best in adobe? In 

 this Rcdii'ood City I find clay-like soil zvhich looks very dark and heavy. 

 What kind of plants will grow best in this soil? 



The term adobe does not mean any particular kind of soil. It 

 is applied locally to clay and clay-loam soils indiscriminately. It 

 generally signifies the heaviest, stickiest, crackingest soil in the 

 vicinity. Most plants will grow^ well on heavy soils if they are kept 

 from getting too dry and too full of water. This is done by using 

 plenty of stable manure and other coarse stuf? to make the soil more 

 friable, which favors aeration, drainage, root extension and plant 

 thrift. Friability is also promoted by the use of lime and by good 

 tillage. The particular soil to which you refer is a black clay loam 

 which can be improved in all the ways stated. It is a good soil for 

 most flowers and vegetables if handled as suggested. You can get 

 hints of what does best by studying your neighbors' earlier plantings. 



For a Reclaimed Swamp. 



/ have land, formerly a pond zvhich dried up in the summer months. 

 It has been thoroughly drained nozv for several years. The land sur- 

 rounding it is good fertile soil and produces good crops. On this piece, 

 however, crops come up and look fairly well until about two inches high 

 when they turn yellozv and die. Mesquite grass and strazvberrics seem 

 to be the only crops that zvill live, and they do not do at all zvell. Sorrel 

 grows abundantly in the natural state. 



Apparently the reclaimed land which you speak of needs liming 

 to overcome the acidity in the soil. Common builders' lime applied 

 at the rate of 1000 pounds to the acre at the beginning of the rainy 

 season ought to make the land much more productive and the soil, 

 at the same time, more friable. Deep plowing with aeration will 

 also help the land, and this treatment can begin at once if the soil 

 is workable. Other additions of lime can be made later as they may 

 be required to make the improvement permanent. 



