No. 4.] FRUIT CULTURE. 123 



and permeable to the atmosphere, and the finer the soil is 

 made the more moisture it will retain. 



My experience has led me to deepen my cultivation until 

 most of my land, a slaty clay soil, has been worked twelve 

 inches in depth. This serves a double purpose, especially 

 upon nearly level land : first, by storing up the moisture for 

 plant growth; and, second, in times of heavy rainfall to 

 absorb large quantities and to quickly carry away the sur- 

 plus, by its capacity for drainage, from the roots of small 

 plants that might otherwise suffer from the excessive supply. 



I have one field that when first purchased destroyed one 

 crop by drought and another by flooding, which is now able ' 

 to withstand both these elements because of deep cultivation 

 and the incorporation into it of large quantities of vegetable 

 matter. 



How can we best and most cheaply supply this vegetable 

 matter to the soil? In my experience, it has been by 

 ploughing under in a green state such crops as clover, oats 

 and peas, rye and buckwheat, as time and opportunity ofier. 

 Clover undoubtedly stands at the head, because of its ability 

 to go down deep into the soil and bring up fertility from 

 below, and also to store up the free nitrogen .of the air 

 through the germ life that works upon the roots of the plant. 

 Crimson clover, wherever it can be grown, is one of the 

 most active agencies in restoring fertility to the soil. I have 

 received much benefit from it, and would recommend it in 

 vineyard and orchard culture as a cover crop during the 

 winter and for its efiects upon the soil, as will be shown 

 later on. 



I have had excellent results from ploughing under heavy 

 crops of both clover and rye during the three dry seasons 

 previous to the last. About the 1st of June, 1894, I 

 ploughed under a heavy growth of clover, rolled the ground 

 and planted to sweet corn. No rain of any account fell 

 upon it after planting. The corn started slowly, but when 

 its roots got hold of the decomposing vegetable matter its 

 growth was very rapid, and more luxuriant, healthy growth 

 you never saw, and the outcome was a crop that paid me 

 over one hundred dollars per acre. The same season I had 

 a field of rye as thick as it could stand and eighteen inches 



