NATIONAL COUNCIL OF HORTICULTURE 37 



quickly on the investment. I have known many cases where crops 

 would produce $2,000 and $2,500 per acre, where if we had not irri- 

 gated, the land would have yielded not more than $1,000. In these 

 cases we not only get our money back but we get good interest for all 

 years to come, and for that reason, the intensive farmers of the East 

 all have their irrigation plants and put them to practical use. 



Chairman Manning: Dr. Galloway, may we ask you to say a 

 few words on this subject? 



Dr. Galloway: It is not necessary to go into the details of this 

 paper, except possibly to emphasize the point that he strongly brought 

 out, namely, that the soil can no longer be considered a simple propo- 

 sition. If we go back in history we find now and then some individual 

 or set of individuals who claim that they have discovered the secret of 

 handling soils by some chemical process. Years ago it was the doc- 

 trine of the chemist that by chemical analysis we could determine the 

 needs of the soil. That has been discredited, and the point I wish to 

 make is that Professor King has pointed out that the soil is a great 

 laboratory wherein this work is being carried on and there is any one 

 of two, three or a half a dozen things to which we can attribute sue - 

 cess of crops, but we must look at the combination of things and 

 study the proposition from that standpoint. 



Chairman Manning: I will call for a discussion of Dr. Woods' 

 paper on "Plant Diseases." 



Professor Rane : I might say the subject was very broadly treated 

 and I am sure we are all interested. It seems to me all of the papers 

 we have heard this morning dovetail into each other very closely. The 

 more I listened to the subjects the more I was impressed with the 

 fact that after all the soil is one of the fundamentals of crop growth. 

 I have been in educational lines for a number of years, and I think 

 that if there is anything that I have been impressed with more than 

 anything else, it is that if we do not have much soil, there is no use 

 of anything else. The more you know about a soil the greater chances 

 there are of success. I am of the candid opinion that oftentimes many 

 of our diseases and many of our insect depredations are brought about 

 more from certain conditions of soil than any other thing. Take Mr. 

 Rawson's business about Boston and the other men that are in the 

 market gardening work. One of the first things is to make proper 

 soil for the particular crops they are endeavoring to grow. I have been 

 before their association every year and discussed with them various 

 subjects. I find those men are men of but comparatively little educa- 

 tion on the question of depredations. The most essential thing is 

 proper soil, then provide against the different depredations as a part 

 of the culture of the crop. I appreciate most highly all the work that 

 has been done along these lines, but I think we ought to emphasize 

 more and more the importance, as these papers have brought out, of 

 getting in the first place a proper soil, then get at the proper method of 

 handling it. 



Professor Alwood : Dr. Woods said something in his paper that 

 I want to repeat, because I thought perhaps I have been a great sinner 



