68 BULLETIN" 140,. 17. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The unfavorable weather conditions which prevailed during the 

 peach-harvesting season of 1912, especially in the Carman-Champion 

 period, furnished in conjunction with subsoil variation an unusually 

 sensitive index to the behavior of these varieties and also to some 

 other sorts. 



The tendency of the Champion peach, when humid weather pre- 

 vails, to rot before quite ripe enough to pick, is generally recognized 

 as a very serious difficulty with this otherwise excellent variety. The 

 connection between the direct effect -of the weather in bringing this 

 about and any impervious condition in the subsoil, as determined by 

 hardpan, underlying rock, a too high content of clay, or a subsoil 

 structure too stiff is quite marked, and was of much commercial im- 

 portance in Connecticut in 1912. So exacting were the weather con- 

 ditions that it was very difficult, and in some cases impossible, 

 especially in the large orchards' to prevent more or less loss no 

 matter how favorable the soil and local elevation, but the fruit went 

 down much more rapidly where the subsoils Avere shallow or lacked 

 sufficient porosity from some one or more of the causes above enu- 

 merated. This was somewhat noticeable when comparing the fruit 

 from different orchards, but as such comparisons are usually based 

 upon the average of the soil and subsoil conditions which often in- 

 clude a considerable range, they are much less indicative than similar 

 contrasts afforded by an orchard or orchards under the same manage- 

 ment, where it is certain that the same or comparable treatments 

 have been given, or where information is available as to the exact 

 variation in the treatment for a considerable term of years. 



The influence of variation in soil depth was well illustrated in the 

 season of 1912, on a ridge of about 500 feet elevation in a large com- 

 mercial orchard, which is divided by a north and south road. On 

 the east side of this road Carman and Champion were both later, as 

 in other years, than on the west side, the elevation being virtually 

 the same. On the west side the soil is friable and of fairly good 

 depth. As the underlying rock dips to the east, it is much less 

 broken than on the west side and consequently subsoil drainage is 

 far less complete. The friable soil — Wethersfield silty loam — does 

 not vary material^ to an approximate depth of 2 feet, but because 

 of the difference in subsoil drainage that west of the road may be 

 worked from a week to 10 d&js earlier in the spring than that east 

 of the road, and there is a similar difference in the ripening date of 

 a given variety of peach. On August 31, for example, the Cham- 

 pions still needed to ripen for several days, and stray Carman trees 

 were only just ready to pick, though the Carman season was sup- 

 posed to have ended in that locality a week before. In this case all 

 conditions except the subsoils are so nearly identical that the differ- 



