94 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
trees but an abundance of excellent and 
peautiful fruit. 
The subsoil is an important factor in 
the planting of trees, and its quality and 
character should be understood. It is 
eloser and more firm than the top soil, 
and retains moisture longer, but it may 
be made up of such fine particles of clay 
and with so little vegetable matter in it 
as to be impervious to water, and this 
constitutes what is known as hard pan, 
and if this lies up to within a foot of the 
top soil, trees will not thrive in it, neither 
will they produce much or good fruit. 
Such formation near the surface pre- 
vents the water in the soil below from 
rising to supply the needs of vegetation, 
through long periods of drought. Where 
a hard pan formation may exist from 
six to ten feet below the surface, it is of 
great value, for there a certain moisture 
supply is assured through dry seasons, 
especially where frequent cultivation is 
given to the surface soil. 
Hon. Geo. T. Powett, 
President Agricultural Experts Association, 
New York. 
New Mexico Soils 
In many of the old treatises on apple 
culture we find it stated that the apple 
prefers a heavy soil. The more recent au- 
thorities on the subject modify this state- 
ment by saying that it is quite cosmopoli- 
tan in its adaptability to soil. In New 
Mexico a heavy or an adobe soil, as found 
in some of the valley lands, is not so 
suitable for apple trees as a good, strong 
and deep leamy soil with a stratum of 
heavy clay underlying it. A heavy soil 
of one or two feet in depth underlaid by 
sand or gravel is not good for apple trees. 
On the other hand, a soil ranging from 
five to seven or more feet in depth of a 
good, strong, loamy character and under- 
laid by a heavy adobe stratum is an 
ideal location. 
FaBlaN GARCIA, 
Santa Fe, N. M. 
Upland Soil 
Upland timber soil, particularly that 
known as “White Oak Soil,” is well 
adapted for orcharding. Loess soil is good 
also, as the roots can penetrate it readily. 
Black prairie soils are often very rich ip 
nitrogen, which causes an excess of leaf 
and wood growth late in the season. This 
lessens the production of fruit buds angq 
makes the tree more liable to winter ip. 
jury. 
A. T. Erwin, 
G. R. Buiss, 
Ames, Iowa 
Oregon Soils 
Upon this very important phase of or. 
chard-making, all authorities are practi- 
cally agreed. From the old orchards, and 
especially the old trees of both Europe 
and America, the West and East, the 
same lessons are learned. With one ac- 
cord these trees, though sepaiated by 
leagues of land and water, proclaim the 
creed of the apple tree—complete air and 
water drainage, and a deep, loamy soil. 
Speaking upon this topic about 200 
years ago, Miller, an English authority, 
said: 
A gentle hazel loam, which is easy to 
work and does not retain the wet, is the 
best. Although these trees will grow 
on very strong land they are seldom so 
thriving, nor is the fruit so well flavored 
as upon trees grown on a gentle soil. Dry, 
sandy, or gravelly soils are wholly unfit 
for the apple tree. 
Delaville,* writing upon the subject of 
soils suitable to fruit culture in France, 
says: 
A good soil for all fruit trees is com- 
posed of equal parts of sand, clay, and 
lime. 
Baltet,** a popular French horticultural 
writer, in discussing the subject of soils 
desirable for the apple, remarks that: 
A wheat soil is the soil for the apple 
tree when grown as a standard. 
The importance of thorough drainage 
in connection with a good soil is em- 
phasized by the same author in these 
words: . 
The fruit of the apple is largest in the 
humid valleys, but best flavored on the 
hills and dry table lands, the excess of 
humidity, as the need of free air, inducing 
canker and favoring the aphis. 
 ssiamanellianipiadeaorneraanad 
* Cours Practique D’Arboriculture Fruitiere, 
** Traite de la Culture Fruitiere, 1900. 
