SOILS, FERTILIZERS AND IRRIGATION 61 



The neighbors advise not to disturb the top crust, claiming it would 

 dry out more quickly. I have been informed that continual stirring 

 of the top soil would conserve the moisture. 



It will surely dry out if you do not disturb the top crust. Cultivate 

 shallow to keep a thin layer of loose soil on top. Deep cultivation in 

 the dry season exposes too much soil surface to drying. 



Trouble in Soil, Not in Climate. 



Near the north shore of San Francisco Bay I have six acres of apple 

 orchard and iive acres to crop and garden. Conditions are peculiar here 

 and trying. Every afternoon during the summer we get a westerly 

 trade wind that continues well into the night. During June we had 

 temperatures ranging from 90 degrees at noon to 50 degrees at 8 p. m., 

 accompanied by a cold fog. This extreme in 24 hours seems to check 

 all plant growth. Teas bloom zvhen 6 inches high; beans remain station- 

 ary at 12 inches; corn makes little growth and turns yellow. Squash, 

 vine, etc., are thrashed to pieces by the wind and all stuff grows so 

 slowly it seems tough and tasteless. What crops can one grow under 

 conditions of this sort? 



You are blaming the climate too much. Your land needs trenching 

 (or at least deep plowing) and a heavy bombardment with stable manure. 

 This would feed the plants and hold more moisture for them. Your land 

 must be made more loamy whether it be now either too sandy or too 

 hard, and plenty of organic matter will help it in either case. Your 

 working last winter was too shallow or too late, so that much rainfall 

 moisture was lost and your planting of all the things you mention was 

 too late. The poor growth of plants you describe is caused chiefly by 

 drying out and not by the temperature. With manure and better tillage 

 the corn will grow high enough to wind-break the squashes and other 

 tender foliage. Get manure, save moisture by better tillage, get more 

 busy and get busy earlier in the rainy season. Your climate is like that 

 which prevails on the lower lands in most northern Coast valleys, and 

 it will make good crops if the soil is fed and worked right. 



Probably Too Much Alkali for Peaches. 



On land, too high to Hood from irrigating ditch, I planted apricot 

 trees which grew finely until August, when most of them died, and the 

 balance died this winter. For two years previously I had planted peach 

 trees, but they also died the same way. I am thinking of placing a 2-inch 

 centrifugal pump on the bank to pump water out of the ditch. Each 

 year I have tried to keep trees alive by watering with hose from tank- 

 house, but have failed. The land on the surface looks right, but when 

 digging holes for trees it shows a little alkali, but does not seem 

 to me too strong. 



If it were simply a case of dying from drouth, you could easily 

 settle it by pumping from the ditch as you propose. Pumping from 

 ditches to higher lands is done on both large and small scale in all 



