110 The Principles of Fruit-growing 



may be added to it. The first thing to do, then, is to make 

 it possible for the plant to grow. If the physical and 

 environmental conditions are right, the addition of plant- 

 food is capable of being felt. The plant must be made 

 comfortable before it will thrive. A cow will not relish 

 even the fanciest ration if she is uncomfortable. 



The grower must set himself in line with natural 

 methods. He must see that the soil has a good supply of 

 humus or organic matter (from crops turned under, 

 dressings of stable-manure, muck, and the like), and that 

 it usually has some cover. Early in the season, this cover 

 is the surface mulch of tilled soil, and later it is the cover- 

 crop of rye or crimson clover or something of the kind. 



Bare land becomes unproductive land. Its elements 

 must be unlocked and worked over and digested by roots. 

 The surface must be covered to catch the rains and to 

 hold the snows, to retain moisture, and to prevent the 

 baking and cementing of the soil. The plant tissues add 

 fiber and richness, and make the land amenable to all the 

 revivifying influences of sun and rain and air and warmth. 

 The plant is co-partner with the weather in the building 

 of the primal soils. The lichen spreads its thin substance 

 over the rocks, sending its fibers into the crevices and 

 filling the chinks, as they enlarge, with the decay of its 

 own structure; and finally the rock is fit for the moss or 

 fern or creeping vine, each newcomer leaving its impress 

 by which some later newcomer may profit. Finally the 

 rock is disintegrated and comminuted, and is ready to be 

 still further elaborated by corn and ragweed. Nature 

 intends to leave no vacant or bare soils. She providently 

 covers the railway embankment with quack-grass or 

 willows, and she scatters daisies in the old meadows where 

 the land has grown sick and tired of grass. If one pulls up 



