FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE. 
CHAPTER I. 
SOIL, LOCATION AND WINDBREAKS. 
As a rule, rather light or loamy soils, with deep and 
porous subsoils, are best adapted to apple growing. Nat- 
ural drainage is imperative. Apple trees are impatient 
of wet feet. Cold and backward soils, even if well under- 
drained, do not give good results. I am not to be under- 
stood as discouraging tile drainage, but I prefer a soil 
naturally well drained to one tile-drained. Naturally 
drained soils are warm soils. I have in mind a contrast 
between two prominent Michigan orchards. Both were 
planted about twenty-five years ago, and with essentially 
the same varieties. One stands upon a rather poor sand, 
which possesses no decided subsoil higher than ten or 
twelve feet below the surface. The orchard has received 
good culture, but no underdraining, and the trees are 
to-day vigorous and productive. The other orchard stands 
upon a heavy loam, with a clay or hard-pan subsoil within 
two feet of the surface. The land has been remarkably 
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