176 The Principles of Fruit-growing. 



seen, not only refuses to yield up its own stores of 

 wealth, but it will delay and even preclude the good 

 results from plant -foods which may be added to it. 

 The first thing to do, then, is to make it possible 

 for the plant to grow. Make the physical and en- 

 vironmental conditions right, and the addition of 

 plant -food will be felt and appreciated. The plant 

 must be made comfortable before it will thrive. A 

 cow will not relish even the fanciest ration if she 

 shivers with cold. 



The grower must set himself in line with nat- 

 ural methods. He must see that the soil has a 

 good supply of humus or decaying organic matter 

 (got from crops turned under, dressings of stable 

 manure, muck, and the like), and that it generally 

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

 cover is the surface mulch of cultivated soil, and 

 later it is the cover crop of rye or crimson clover, 

 or something of the kind. 



Nature is a kindly and solicitous mother. She 

 knows that bare land becomes unproductive land. 

 Its elements must be unlocked and worked over 

 and digested by the roots of plants. The surface 

 must be covered to catch the rains and to hold 

 the snows, to retain the moisture, and to prevent 

 the baking and cementing of the soil. The plant 

 tissues add fiber and richness to the land, and 

 make it 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 sub- 



