140 The, Principles of Fruit-growing. 



soil and the conservation of the moisture, for if the 

 cultivator is skilled in these latter matters, all the 

 other benefits will follow. 



The texture of the soil. The texture or physical 

 condition of the soil is nearly always more important 

 than its mere richness in plant-food. That is, the 

 productivity of land is not determined wholly, and 

 perhaps not even chiefly, by the amount of fertiliz- 

 ing elements which it contains. Thi.s is particularly 

 true of all lands like the clays which tend to be- 

 come and to remain hard and unpleasant if left to 

 themselves. Plant-food is of no consequence unless 

 the plant can use it. The hardest rocks may con- 

 tain various plant-foods in abundance, and yet plants 

 cannot grow on them. A stick of wood contains 

 potassium and phosphorus and nitrogen, and yet 

 nothing grows upon it until it begins to decay. A 

 hundred pounds of potash in a stone -hard lump is 

 worth less to a given plant than an ounce in a 

 state of fine division. Soils which the chemist may 

 pronounce rich in plant -foods may grow poor crops.* 

 In other words, the chemist can not tell what a soil 

 will produce; he can only tell what it contains. 



All this is not surprising, when we come to think 

 of it. Every good farmer knows that a hard and 

 lumpy soil will not grow good crops, no matter how 

 much plant -food it may contain. A clay soil which 

 has been producing good crops for any number of 

 years may be so seriously injured by one injudi 



See, for example, Bull. 119, Cornell Exp. Sta. 



