104 
sible the orchard should be planted on 
rolling ground or on a gentle slope. Un- 
der these conditions both air and soil 
drainage are provided. 
The orchards of the Upper Mississippi 
valley are particularly subject to damage 
from late spring frosts. These frosts are 
always most severe on the bottoms and 
lower levels. In many instances dam- 
age occurs here when the trees on the 
uplands escape entirely. This is because 
the cold air, being heavier, naturally set- 
tles to the valleys. Parasitic diseases are 
also much less troublesome on the up- 
lands, since the drier air discourages their 
growth. The north slope has been often 
advocated as the ideal orchard site, al- 
though any slope is good. The funda- 
mental requisite is to secure a slope of 
some kind. In many parts of Iowa the 
land is so level that there is little choice 
in this regard. Reasonable success may 
be attained on level ground in the case 
of the home orchard. It is doubtful, how- 
ever, if it is wise to engage in commercial 
orcharding where the proper slope and 
type of soil are not available. 
A. T. ERwin, 
G. R. Briss, 
Ames, Iowa. 
Ohio Conditions 
While apples may be grown with some 
success in level sections of the state, it 
is a very great advantage if the site cho- 
sen for the orchard be somewhat higher 
than the land adjacent. An elevation of 
even a few feet above the channels or 
beds of local streams of water will provide 
not only the necessary water drainage, but 
also favor frost or cold air drainage which 
is of almost equal importance. It is a 
generally well known fact that, under 
weather conditions which favor frost, the 
colder atmosphere being the heavier seeks 
the lower levels of the valleys, ravines 
and depressions, while the warmer, lighter 
air envelopes the slopes and summits of 
the higher ground, often entirely pre- 
venting injury by frost in late spring to 
the blossoms or young fruit. This is es- 
pecially true of those areas of our state 
remote from the larger bodies or streams 
of water. The modifying and retarding 
influences of Lake Erie upon tempera- 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
ture, as affecting vegetation, renders a 
large area of adjacent level land wel] 
protected from extremes of temperature 
In the valleys of our laiger rivers such 
as the Ohio, Muskingum and others flow- 
ing through the rougher parts of the 
state and bordered along their courses 
by high hills on either side, it some 
times occurs during extremely frosty 
weather that the dense river fogs protect 
the lower levels from frost while vegeta- 
tion on the higher altitudes suffers ge. 
verely. For this reason there may be ex- 
ceptions made in favor of orchard sites 
on the more elevated portions of ‘second 
bottom’ land of some of the greater river 
valleys, as that of Ohio; but this will 
not generally apply to the much smaller 
valleys of the lesser tributaries. 
Humidity and Discase 
Excessive humidity in the valleys of 
the great streams of water favors the 
development of certain forms of fungi af. 
fecting the apple—such as the “sooty 
blotch” or fungus-—-which are rarely 
troublesome on the more elevated sites. 
As a rule the preference of location for 
an apple orchard would wisely be given 
to the elevated hill-slope or summit. 
EF. H. Barxou, 
Wooster, Ohio. 
North Carolina Conditions 
There is considerable difference of 
opinion among fruit men as to what is 
the best direction for the slope of an 
orchard. The preferences of different 
men of experience are so variable as 
to include every point of the compass. 
Kach slope has its advantages and its 
disadvantages. A northern slope is a lit- 
tle later in forcing growth in spring, 
and on that account the bloom is less apt 
to be nipped by late spring frosts. On 
the other hand, the fruit on northern 
slopes, when developing, gets less sunlight 
and does not have the high colors of that 
grown on southern slopes. As it is the 
sunlight that paints the bright colors, 
the southern slopes always produce the 
richest-tinted fruit. Southern slopes, too, 
are the ones from which the sun drinks 
the moisture most rapidly. They are apt, 
therefore, to be droughty, and unless the 
