186 The Principles of Fruit-growing. 



dry, whilst one sowed late in the season upon land 

 which has been thoroughly tilled during May, June 

 and July, does not seriously rob the soil of mois- 

 ture. At all events, there need be no fear of dry- 

 ing out the soil by sowing a late crop, for the 

 serious injury of drought is usually effected before 

 such crops are established, and rainfall is then becom- 

 ing abundant ; and the tree needs to be checked, 

 rather than stimulated, at this season, by the trans- 

 fer of the nitrates and moisture to other plants. 

 The most marked way in which such crops conserve 

 moisture is by means of the fiber and humus which 

 they impart to the soil when plowed under ; but 

 even this humus cannot compete with cultivation as 

 a retainer of moisture. 



An experiment at Cornell* illustrates the value 

 of cultivation over a green crop occupying the land 

 the entire season, in a dry year. The orchard is 

 a hard clay, just the soil which is benefited by the 

 loosening effects of green manures. The orchard was 

 divided into three portions in 1890, a year after 

 the trees were set. One -third has received liberal 

 annual dressings of commercial fertilizers, and has 

 been well tilled ; another third has had no treat- 

 ment except good tillage ; and the remaining third 

 has had liberal applications of potash, and has then 

 been sown early to a nitrogenous (leguminous) green 

 crop. This third portion has simply been plowed 



*Bull. 72, Cornell Exp. Sta. This experiment has not yet progressed far 

 enough for report upon methods of fertilizing, and is mentioned here only 

 for the purpose of contrasting methods of cultivation. 



