86 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 





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Fig. 1 A Native Apple Tree and a Pioneer in the Early Days in CunueoLicut. 



Years of Age. Conn. Sta. 



At Least 150 



pears, a soil which will furnish sufficient 

 nutriment to the tree for two or three 

 generations. It suggests the importance, 

 also, of sufficient moisture, for soil depth 

 is of little value unless the sub-soil or 

 under stratum contains sufficient water 

 to hold plant food in solution. Many or- 

 chards are being planted in places where 

 they will grow fruit successfully for 20, 

 25 or 30 years, but not for a longer period, 

 because a few feet below the surface there 

 Is a stratum of rock or of hardpan, or 

 perhaps there is not sufficient seepage to 

 moisten the soil a very great depth and 

 the food substances in the soil are not 

 available. Especially is this so in the 

 arid and semi-arid regions where it is 

 necessary to resort to irrigation to grow 

 fruit successfully. Then, too, in these 



irrigated sections there are many places 

 where there is sub-irrigation and the soil 

 is wet to a very great depth. This may 

 be considered desirable if there is not 

 too much water to injure the tender roots 

 of the trees. 



In West Virginia I have observed 

 that in every case where the orchards 

 were from 50 to 75 years old they have 

 been situated where the soil was deep 

 and where there was seepage enough to 

 supply the root system with more mois- 

 ture than generally falls on the surface; 

 that when the orchards were planted on 

 situations where there was no seepage, 

 and where the rock came near the sur- 

 face, the orchards were dead. In 1905 I 

 visited a number of farms where 40 years 

 before there were flourishing orchards, yet 



