No. 4.J SOIL VARIATION. ' 21 



ToMPKiisrs King. 

 The Tompkins King is fully as exacting as ^Northern Spy 

 in soil adaptation. The tree, with its straggling tendency of 

 growth, does not develop satisfactorily on sandy soils, but 

 succeeds best on a moist yet well-drained soil, i.e., the light 

 Ehode Island Greening soils, — a soil capable of maintaining 

 such supply of moisture that the tree receives no check at the 

 approach of drought. But the fruit grown on soils so heavy 

 lacks clearness of skin, and the appearance of the apple is 

 marred by the greenish look extending far up the sides from 

 the blossom end, and the lack of well-developed color, which 

 makes this fruit at its best very attractive. Hence the prob- 

 lem is to balance these two opposite tendencies as well as 

 possible, and the soil of the following description seems best 

 to do this : light, mellow loam, the sand content thereof being 

 medium rather than fine, thus constituting an open-textured 

 loam rather than a fine loam. The subsoil should be either 

 of the same texture or only slightly heavier, in no case being 

 heavier than a very light, plastic, clay loam. The soil must 

 be brought to a productive condition. Subsoils inclining 

 toward stiffness in structure should be carefully avoided. 



Fall Pirpix. 

 Soils adapted to the Fall Pippin are somewhat wider in 

 range than those described for Northern Spy and Tompkins 

 King. In fact, this variety may be very successfully grown 

 on the soils described for both the Tompkins King and the 

 IvTorthern Spy. It is preferable, however, that the surface 

 soil be a fine loam rather than the open-texture loam described 

 for the Tompkins King. 



Gkimes GoLDElSr. 



The Grimes is so similar to the Khode Island Greening in 



soil adaptation that a separate description of the soils best 



for this variety will not be given. The Grimes has been so 



profitable in some districts under certain conditions of soil 



