98 HOKTICULTUEAL MANUAL. 



the bank by root-growth. By this plan the rows may be 

 circular and varied in direction, but it does not seriously 

 interfere with culture or the gathering of. the fruit. 



Where the plan has been tried in Kansas, Missouri, and 

 other States, it has been found that it not only conserves 



FIG. 55. A gully in best orchard soils. 



moisture by giving time for rains and melted snow to settle 

 downward, but mainly stops the washing and gullying. 

 As a rule, the best orchard soils are most subject to deep 

 gullying. On the loess soils of west Iowa, Tennessee, 

 Georgia, Missouri, and other States, old cultivated fields 

 are now eroded and gullied, as shown in Fig. 55, as given 

 in "The Soils of Tennessee." The upper slope shown 

 was the surface of a field ten years ago. After a gully 



