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THIRTY-FOURTH FRTIT-GROWERS ' COXVEXTIOX. 



The soil first is for the rooting of the tree that it may stand upright, 

 that it may get the food and the water that it needs from the soil — 

 largely from the soil. We must get a deep rooting system if we are 

 going to get a uniform condition. We speak of men and women as 

 superficial: they are not deep-rooted down in the faith of things that 

 they may live a uniform, consistent life persistently. It is the same 

 thing with the tree life. The root must be deep down in the soil that it 

 may not be affected by the things that affect tree life. The sun in 

 the heavens in California in July and August is so hot that 'the tree 

 that has a shallow rooting system is undone; it can't make a uniform 

 growth. You pour the water over the soil, and, as Mr. Smith said 

 yesterday, it drinks it up like the famished man on the desert until it 

 poured out over the stump that he was experimenting with. So we 

 must be deeply rooted. Our trees must be deeply rooted, that they may 

 have their roots away down yonder beyond the effect of the hot suii 

 of summer and of the cold nights of winter — they come both hot and 

 cold. The tree which has been coaxed out in its youth to live a super- 

 ficial life, and its root system runs out all over the surface. Avill continue 

 to live that way for a long time, unless you deal radically with it. It 

 looks for its drink constantly before others are looking for it. Two 

 weeks, three weeks, and the leaves are wilted and die, because the roots 

 are on the surface, and the moisture that is near to the root system is 

 soon exhausted, and the tree is calling for water again. But just yonder 

 over the line, another orchard differently treated, with its roots down 

 deep under the earth, will go along five, six, seven, eight weeks, 

 gloriously living its life. Not a leaf is aff'ected by the hot sun. It is 

 living a uniform and consistent life. You have helped it to live that 

 life, as you have tried yourself, possibly, to live that consistent life. 

 Therefore, I say first, that you must enable the tree to be deeply rooted, 

 that its relations with the soil, the fruit, and the soil relations may be 

 right. 



The tree needs food. There is in the soil more or less food, and 

 while the chemists say. and say truly, that it is impossible to tell how 

 nnich that orchard may need when you have analyzed it. yet I believe 

 that in the long run the man who knows his orchard, knows what is 

 in it down as far as the roots — having experimented with his shovel 

 in a dozen places on his orchard to know what he has got to deal with 

 in the subsoil as vrell as on the surface : and I am sorry not one per 

 cent of you know it. because you have not taken your shovel and gone 

 down and down to find just what the conditions are physically in your 

 orchard. I say that he who analyzes its soil and puts it on paper, and 

 continues to do it. will have some knowledge that is of some use to him. 



Let me tell you. in passing, — and I would, not speak of myself, but 

 it may be of assistance to you. — that the laboratory on our groves is 

 teaching us something and teaching us great things. The laboratory 

 on Arlington Heights. I assure you. will enable us this year, because 

 of the information gained, to keep in our pockets $50,000 that we 

 would otherv\-ise spend if we were in the dark. But we have found light 

 through our laboratory, and we will save this year $50,000 because we 

 have spent two or three thousand. It is worth your while. 



But there are thousands who forget the relation of the tree and the 

 soil to the fruit, and they say. "Oh. there is enough there: I am not 



