-5- 



tha '..'..ter and the flowers suffer. Only a few hours of such deficiency are re- 

 quired to cause a heavy June drop. Reduction in crop of orchards on water 

 logged soils often occurs when rainfall in spring is excessively heavy. There 

 may be a root system, but it cannot supply water for the tree, because there 

 is not enough air in the soil. 



Normal air contains '-.bout 20 /o oxygen and 80;o nitrogen. In good 

 soils we may find 15/o or more of oxygen in the air at the four-foot level 

 at this Season, while in other soils there m^y be practically no oxygen at 

 th.it luvel even though the supply Vi^as satisfactory in September. Soil parti- 

 cles, in svifelling may fill up the air spaces, thus excluding the air to 

 a point that the roots can't keep going. It is vary importi^nt that the 

 oxygun supply throughout the deoper layers be araplu just as soon as ,.^.cti- 

 vity starts in spring. Tree roots must have an air supply containing at 

 luast lO/o oxygen. If the oxygon supply gous belovif th^.t levol, tho roots, 

 v;hilu not killod, ^rc unable to pick up what is pri^sont in the soil. Thu 

 surface foot generally has many roots boCausu conditions oTo most fc^vorable 

 for gutting oxygon. 



V/ater in the soil must get up to the fruit during the grovifing 

 season as rapidly as it is lost from the leaves. This ruquirus a wide con- 

 tact of roots v»dth moist ..ur^^tud soil. If thw roots are functioning to a 

 depth of only 18" they CL.nnot get as much watv^r as if th^^y wure active to 

 a depth of 4' . Apples gro\-' racdnly during the night when water may bo di- 

 verted from the leaves. They shrivel when a deficit occurs. Grov/th is not 

 resumed until the loss is restored. In some soils the particles have been 

 pressed so firmly by extreme pressure as to appear cemented. This, of 

 course, effects the oxygen supply. 



iJarly spring, after a rather wet vdnter may be -a good time to 

 test a soil for orchard purposes. If the water table remains within two 

 feet of the surface as l^te as June 1, that soil should be avoided. A good 

 soil will h..ve a water table down to four feet by the first of Llay. The 

 water level should drop rc^pidly after the frost is out of the ground. 

 Trees may be submerged from November until April 1 without dam:;ge. Not so 

 vdth trees submerged after growth starts. A good soil vd.ll' huve a fairly 

 uniform color to a depth of four or five feet. A reddish brown color means 

 that air has penetrated and brought about oxidation. Soils vvrhich are 

 lighter colored belov/ 18" suggest that there is a lack of oxygen during a 

 part of the year. Roots fail to penetrate a grayish soil to any extent. 

 A mottled condition is bad. It is very hard to lower the vi^ater table out 

 of the second or third foot of soil, where roots are being asphyxiated 

 early in the season. Tile drainage is not entirely effective. A soil may 

 be devoid of any free water and still have the ,;ir excluded by swollen 

 soil particles. A normal soil may have over 40/<, of air space. The rest 

 is soil. But if the seil p:.irticles swell up, l^^uving a gr&atly reduced ox- 

 ygen supply, it is an unfertun-.te thing for growing fruit trees. 



Items from Here and There 



Cortlc^nd and E.^rly Mcintosh Gross Inc jmp^^tible 



Cross incemp-tibility , that is the failure of pollen of one variety 

 to be effective on some ether variety, is rare in apples. It is vifell known 

 th..t it is true of certu.in varieties of sweet cherries. It is therefore 

 interesting to knew th^t the New Hampshire St_^tion has found th^t Cortland 



