10 SOIL—-ROCKS—WATER—TIMBER 
vegetable matter, and when dry sets hard, after the 
manner of cement, and throughout the summer it is pretty 
nearly always dry. As a veteran fruit-grower observed 
once when walking across land of this description, “ You 
might turn Niagara across it, and it would still be thirsty.” 
In fact, it wears such a hungry look that a good British 
or Canadian farmer would consider it not worth a dime 
or sixpence an acre of any man’s money. And yet this 
soil does, beyond a doubt, produce an abundance of fruit 
of excellent quality, yielding plums to the value of 
$850 per acre, and cherries that bring in over $1,500 
per acre, and even applesthat have won prizes in com- 
petition with the best fruit of the American Continent. 
Still, such land is not to be recommended, chiefly because 
of the great difficulty of getting quite young trees and 
every kind of intermediate crop to start and take root 
properly in it. 
Do not on any consideration buy hardpan or alkali 
soils. The former generally lies a short distance below 
the surface, and is extremely hard, tough, and impervious. 
No roots can work in it; it holds no nutriment ; it pre- 
vents the free passage of moisture. Alkali soils or soils 
impregnated with excess of salts are indicative of a 
process of desiccation or drying up, or of excessive 
evaporation, consequent upon faulty irrigation. How- 
ever induced, they are inimical to plant life generally, and 
consequently are altogether unsuited for growing fruit. 
Rocks.—British Columbia is almost everywhere a pte- 
dominatingly mountainous country. The mountains con- 
sist superficially in great part of bare rock. Consequently 
it is not surprising to find that their lower slopes are 
