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THE AORICULTUEAL J U E N A L. 



Fruit Cuttivation. 



A CORRESPONDENT has been good 

 enough to send us the accompanying 

 from the Mid-Lothian Advertiser. The 

 information is, of course, intended for 

 fruit-growers of the British Isles, but the 

 principles of fruit culture, subject to 

 differences in climate and soil, hold good 

 all the world over : — 



Soil, Climate, etc. 

 Introductory. 

 So many farmers are turning their 

 attention to fruit culture as an aid to 

 farming that it seems desirable to state 

 what is required in the way of soil, 

 climate, etc., for profitable fruit cultures. 



Soil Requirements. 

 Land for profitable fruit culture must 

 not be heavy and wet, though it should 

 be deep and porous, so that plants may 

 withstand drought. That in good heart 

 from regular cultivation and manuring 

 yields better results than are obtained 

 from ill-cultivated soils heavily manured 

 before planting In pasture land fruit 

 bushes and trees do not appear to root so 

 quickly, and are more subject to drought 

 injury than in soils which have been well 

 tilled for several years previously. Gen- 

 erally speaking, all ordinary soils can be 

 made suitable for fruit culture by caref al 

 preparation, the object of which should 

 be to provide the deepest possible bed of 

 fine, firm, and moist soil for the roots. 

 The utmost care after planting does not 

 compensate for imperfect preparation of 

 the land. 



Clay Soils. 

 Clays are very retentive of moisture 

 and the useful products of manures, but 

 are generally too firm, cold, and damp. 

 Such soils are improved by (1) good 

 drainage, (2), additions of gritty sand, 

 lime, ashes, burnt earth, long straw-con- 

 taining manure, and similar substances, 

 tending to increase the porosity of the 

 soil, and (3) deep autumn trenching or 

 tillage, involving the laud being left in as 

 rough and cloddy a state as possible for 

 the winter, to secure the maximum dis- 

 integration of its particles by the action 



of alternate freezing and thawing of the 

 water with which its interstices are 

 charged. 



Calcareous Soils. 

 The usually greyish-hued soils in which 

 lime predominates generally quickly 

 harden and crack under the heat of the 

 sun. They are greatly ameliorated by 

 heavy dressings of decayed organic 

 matter, nitrogenous substances, decom- 

 posed turf, and dark-coloured soil rich in 

 humus. 



Sandy Soils. 

 Sandy soils, which are too porous and 

 have not sufficient cohesion for plants to 

 get a good grip of them, are improved 

 by any additions tending to greater con- 

 sistency and retentiveaess, such as the 

 ploughing in of green crops, large quan- 

 tities of farmyard manure, vegetable 

 refuse of all kinds, powdered clay, black 

 mud from the bottom of ponds, the 

 cleanings of ditches, and light applica- 

 tions of fish-salt and lime. Evaporation 

 from sandy land during hot weather is 

 largely' checked by regular cultivation 

 and the maintenance of a surface 

 mulch of loose soil an inch or two 

 in depth, or by mulching^ with two 

 or three inches of manure. Sandy land 

 on a clay sub-soil can be admirably fitted 

 for fruit culture by ploughing up some 

 of the clay into the surface soil. 



Drainage. 

 Fruit trees cannot endure excess of 

 water in the soil, and their roots quickly 

 rot in cold, damp ground, so that some 

 system of drainage is absolutely essential 

 to successful cultivation on such lands. 

 The simplest method of draining low, 

 level land is the digging of deep ditches 

 round the fruit plantation, in which the 

 trees may, if necessary, be set on raised 

 mounds. Ordinary drain pipes would 

 soon become choked with roots. 



Summary. 



Whatever the character of the soil its 

 physical structure must be made as good 

 as possible by preparatory tillage and 

 large additions of organic matter, such as 



