iv.] PLANTING FRUIT TREES IN GRASS LAND ill 



trees when newly planted in grass land often make a 

 very poor growth for a year or two. This is because a 

 fruit tree when planted is but indifferently supplied with 

 water-collecting roots ; inevitably they are few in number 

 and have a very restricted range. Hence they must be 

 in a soil well supplied with moisture if they are to provide 

 the tree with the necessary water, and they are very ill 

 fitted to compete with a crowd of fibrous grass roots 

 surrounding them, should the season turn out dry. In 

 one experiment the moisture in the top foot of a 

 pasture was found to be only half that present in the top 

 foot of neighbouring uncropped land. 



The following table shows the percentages of water 

 in the fine earth of an orchard on heavy soil, part of 

 which was under grass and part kept tilled ; it will be 

 seen that in the winter the grass land carries as much 

 or even more water than the bare soil, but towards the 

 end of the summer the drying effect of the grass becomes 

 very pronounced, even down to the third foot 



Few crops so effectually dry the surface soil as grass 

 does, because of the intimate way in which its roots 

 traverse the soil ; hence a fruit tree cannot compete 

 with grass for water as long as the two sets of roots are 

 confined to the same layer. The experiments at the 



