CHAPTER VI 

 WHERE TO PLANT 



Owing to their various habits all classes of fruit 

 do not do equally well in every kind of soil or situa- 

 tion, and as the lands of the Murray Valley consist 

 of many different classes of soil, it is necessary to 

 the success of an orchard that every kind of fruit 

 should be planted in land best suited to its require- 

 ments. 



The whole subject of the adaptability of plants to 

 soils is a difficult one, and a lot more of experience 

 will have to be gathered and experiment made 

 before any degree of finality is reached. Still, the. 

 experience of the Murray irrigation areas seems to 

 have demonstrated one or two facts which should 

 be of use to the new fruitgrower. 



In the first place it should be laid down as a prin- 

 ciple that the nature of a piece of land should deter- 

 mine the class of fruit that is planted upon it. Self- 

 evident as such a course may appear, nevertheless 

 it is not always acted upon. Many settlers in start- 

 ing a new orchard have made up their minds from 

 the beginning what they intend to plant, and so the 

 land is set out irrespective of the suitability of the 

 soil to the varieties planted. 



Even on a ten-acre block there are often two or 

 three different types of soil, so that in all prob- 

 ability no one class of fruit would succeed equally 

 w^ell on every part of it. Newcomers wishing to 

 plant any particular variety should first find out the 

 soil requirements necessary for its best develop- 



