THE SOIL 67 



some time for it to soak through the little pile of 

 powder sugar at the top of the lump. 



If a shower should come during the dry- 

 weather our dust mulch would be ruined and a 

 crust formed. This must be broken up as 

 quickly as possible and the mulch restored, 

 otherwise the moisture produced by the shower 

 will get out of the soil as quickly as it got in. 

 Also, soil which crusts and bakes usually 

 cracks in an irregular fashion, and each crack 

 that is formed means just that much more sur- 

 face from which evaporation can take place. 



Some stress has been laid on the fact that cul- 

 tivation is also beneficial because it keeps down 

 the weeds. This is true, but in the case of an 

 orchard weeds are harmful chiefly because they 

 themselves help to deplete the moisture of the 

 soil. Every plant that grows must have mois- 

 ture to continue living. Consequently every 

 weed in an orchard is using just that much 

 moisture which might be going into the pro- 

 duction of wood or apples. 



Any system of cultivation, however, should 

 be combined with some form of cover crop as it 

 is bad practice to allow an orchard to remain 

 bare in winter. There are several bad results 

 to be expected from such practice. In the first 

 place the surface is much more liable to wash 

 than if it is covered with vegetation. In the 

 second place the bare soil does not offer the 



