234 



TWEXTY->:iNTH FRUIT-GEOWERS CONVENTION. 



a crop, but science and practice soon decided that such was not the 

 case. There are two good reasons for this: 



First — Chemical science has not advanced far enough to be able to 

 determine the availability of plant food in a soil; and. 



Second — It is impracticable. Soils vary, even within a few feet of 

 each other. The soil that is in front of yom* house will vary from that 

 behind the house in analysis, and no two chemists analyzing the same 

 soil by different schemes will agree in their results. 



I see from this little work distributed at this Convention that there 

 are about 12,000,000 acres of improved farm and ranch lands in the 

 State. If these acres would have to be analyzed every year, it would 

 take more chemists to analyze them than there are in the United States. 



JLast summer I attended the Farmers' Institute school at Long Beach. 

 There w^as a professor there from five hundred miles away to instruct 

 the attendance in this matter of fertilization. There was also a rancher 

 there from some sixty miles distant, who asked the question, What is 

 the proper fertilizer for tomatoes? Instead of answering the question, 

 the professor asked, ''What kind of soil are you growing them on? " 

 The answer was, " Decomposed granite soil in the foothills." The 

 professor said, " Well, before I could answer the question, I would have 

 to analyze the soil." That might have been a satisfactory answer to 

 some people, but I fail to see how the rancher or his crop was benefited 

 in the least. 



In regard to the proper treatment of your soils, so as to make the 

 plant foods applied of the greatest value, it is very difiicult to say much 

 that is generic, as it is largely a local question, which each farmer 

 must determine for his own particular land. Generically speaking, all 

 lands need to have the supply of humus maintained. We find, in the 

 south, that from four to seven tons of stable manure, or its equivalent, 

 per acre, is sufficient, and this is applied for the purpose of lightening 

 up the soil, making it more receptive and retentive of the water, and 

 this is caused by the decomposition of the humus in the soil. We find 

 that twenty or twenty-five tons per acre will decompose in the same 

 space of time as one ton: hence, it seems necessary to apply a moderate 

 amount annually. 



I have used the term "stable manure or its equivalent." We, in 

 the south, are growing green crops to a large extent with success, and 

 plowing them under in January or February, where practical. Peas, 

 bur-clover, and natural grasses are all good, and should be plowed- 

 under some weeks before the trees are due to bloom, as plowing during 

 the blooming season is very apt to hinder the fruit from setting or to 

 cause it to drop thereafter. 



Straw or old hay is also being largely used as a source of humus. 



