48 Practical Orcharding On Rough Lands. 



any, that pay a larger percent on the amount 

 invested than drainage. 



We all recognize the fact that roots of plants 

 must have air as well as water in order to pro- 

 mote growth. How quickly corn will turn yel- 

 low in the wet spots over the field. It is not 

 necessarily because of the lack of fertility in the 

 soil, but it may be, and frequently is, because 

 the air has been excluded from the soil by the 

 excess of water. 



We should recognize the difference between 

 a moist and a water soaked soil. While moisture 

 is necessary to the growing plant, on the other 

 hand we cannot expect the plant to even live, 

 much less grow, in a soil which is water soaked. 



If it has paid to drain lands for a crop that 

 may be renewed each season, and it has, (as some 

 of our great swamp sections stand ready to 

 testify by the production of their enormous 

 crops, where but a few years ago only swamp 

 grass and cat-tails flourished,) then it will cer- 

 tainly pay to see that our orchard sites, where 

 we expect the trees to grow for years, are 

 properly drained. 



At first thought one might say, what has 

 drainage to do with orcharding on rough lands? 

 There are a great many places, even in rough 

 or hilly sections, where we find trees dying from 



