662 FUNDAMENTALS OF FRUIT PRODUCTION 



chemical composition. However, it should not be inferred that chemical 

 composition is of little significance, or that poor soils are preferable to 

 good soils for orchard purposes. On the contrary, the richer the soil 

 the better, though productivity as it concerns the orchardist, may be quite 

 different from productivity as it concerns the man growing cereals or fiber 

 plants and a soil that is productive in pineapple cultivation may be 

 unproductive in avocado or prune cultivation. The only satisfactory 

 measure of soil productivity is in terms of crop production of the specific 

 plant under consideration. Hardly an orchard of commercial size any- 

 where fails to show differences in individual tree growth and production 

 due apparently to variation in soil. However, thorough examination 

 would show that many such differences are related to variations in texture 

 or in water-holding capacity rather than in chemical composition. Often 

 the great inequalities between the size, longevity or productivity of trees 

 in various fruit producing sections may be regarded as due largely to 

 chemical composition. The average differences between the apple 

 orchards of western New York and southern Ohio is a case in point — a 

 fact emphasized by the response of the orchards of the latter section to 

 proper fertilizer applications. 



Requirements of Different Crops. — It should be recognized, too, that 

 certain fruits are particularly favored by the presence of some element or 

 compound in the soil. For instance, a high lime content is said to be 

 particularly favorable for oil production in the olive. ^'* The cherry like- 

 wise seems to respond favorably to lime. Vitis berlandieri flourishes in, 

 even prefers, a limestone soil; but V. labrusca is intolerant of lime.^^ The 

 chestnut has been shown to be subject to chlorosis on soils containing 

 upwards of 3 per cent, lime^ and pears are reported as frequently 

 chlorotic on calcareous soils. ^^ Many crop plants are known to prefer 

 a nearly neutral soil reaction and it has consequently been assumed that 

 most fruit plants do; some, however, as the strawberry, thrive only in an 

 acid medium and the blueberry demands a markedly acid soil.^ Certain 

 fruits like the grape are very tolerant toward "alkali;" others, like the 

 mulberry, are very sensitive to it. The pineapple is intolerant of man- 

 ganese.^^ These and the many other peculiarities of a fruit must be 

 kept in mind and soils selected accordingly or, conversely, the soil's 

 peculiarities must be ascertained and the fruit species or varieties selected 

 accordingly. 



Much can be done toward adapting a number of fruits to an uncon- 

 genial soil by growing them on a stock suited to the soil in question. 

 This matter is discussed in some detail in the section on Propagation. 



Chemical Analyses of Various Fruit Soils. — In the accompanying 

 tables (17 to 22) are presented chemical analyses of certain typical soils 

 that are more or less noted for fruit production, together with the analyses 

 of certain other soils that have unknown value for fruit production or that 



