Soils, Fertilizers and Irrigation 151 



Improving Uncovered Subsoil. 



What is the best treatment for spots that have been scraped in level- 

 ing for irrigation F 



The land can be improved by plowing deeply and turning in 

 stable manure or green alfalfa or any other vegetable matter which 

 may decay, rendering the soil rich in humus and more friable. Of 

 course, it will take some time to accomplish this impruvemcnt, and 

 it is necessary that there be moisture enough present to cause the 

 material to decay in order that the improvement may be secured. 



Sand for Clay Soils. 



Will beach sand do adobe or clay soil any good? It gets hard at 

 times and I thought that if I zuas to put beach sand in the ground the 

 salt in the sand would do the ground harm. 



It is certainly desirable to mix sand with heavy soil for the pur- 

 pose of making it lighter — that is, better drained and more friable 

 and therefore improving it for the growth of plants. Sometimes 

 beach sand contains a good deal of salt, which, however, is readily 

 removed by fresh water, and sand hauled and exposed to the rains 

 rapidly loses any excess of salt it may contain. Probably with such 

 an amount of sand as you are likely to use to mix with your adobe, 

 there is no danger at all from salt. Even if such sand should con- 

 tain considerable salt, if applied at the beginning of the rainy sea- 

 son it would be so quickly distributed as to not constitute a menace 

 to the growth of plants. The worst adobe can be transformed into a 

 most beautiful garden soil by the application of sand and stable 

 manure. 



Plowing from or Towards. 



Which is the proper zi^'ay to pknv an orchard.^ First to plozi.' to the 

 trees and then to ploiv from them, or to plow from the trees and then to 

 them, and your reasons? I have had many arguments with )ny neighbor 

 farmers. 



There is difiference of opinion everywhere as to whether the first 

 plowing should be toward or away from the trees. In places where 

 the soil is pretty heavy and the rainfall is apt to be quite large, 

 plowing toward the trees and opening a dead furrow near the center 

 seems to promote rapid distribution of surplus water. If the rainfall 

 is less and arrangements for deep penetration are more necessary, 

 the plowing can well be away from the trees, so as to direct the 

 water toward the row. It is, of course, exceedingly important in 

 this case, that the land should be worked back before it has a chance 

 to dry out by exposure and this is one of the chief objections to 

 the practice, because one is apt to let the land lie away from the 

 trees, hoping for a late rain which may not come. Whatever the- 

 oretical advantages there may be in either of these methods, they 

 can only be secured by the greatest care to avoid the dangers which 



