TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



31 



several cultivated crops a year on the same fields, but I had not con- 

 ceived of the immense yields per crop, and could only account for them 

 by the extra deep tillage. I saw gangs of men in line with long, 

 narrow-bladed spades (plows being seldom used), turning the soil to 

 more than twice the depth that even our better farmers plow for similar 

 crops. 



Tilling the soil for cereals is outside of my subject, but you will allow 

 me to say, in passing, that I can not believe that the best handling of 

 the soil in grain farming, in Southern California at least, has yet been 

 found, or if found, is generally practiced. I was not then especially 

 interested in fruit-growing, but two years ago my son made special study 

 of citrus fruit culture in the Mediterranean countries. He found not 

 only this same deep manipulation of the surface soil by hand, but where 

 they were preparing to set out new orchards he saw them digging over 

 the entire space to a depth of 2 or 3 feet. He found in their well-cared- 

 for groves not only the thickly-set citrus trees, but frequently the entire 

 space between occupied by other crops — sometimes vegetables, sometimes 

 grapes and other small fruits. Even with heavy fertilizing, this enor- 

 mous amount of growth of tree, fruit, and vegetable could not be main- 

 tained except for the extra depth of the root bed. 



This specially deep soil handling is practiced to some extent in other 

 Eastern countries. In some parts of France a long, peculiarly con- 

 structed double plow, cutting a furrow from 25 to 30 inches deep, is 

 used in preparing the soil for vineyards. The municipal gardens near 

 Paris, fertilized by the city sewage, are annually plowed by the same 

 implement, and enormous crops are raised. I am told that equally 

 deep plowing is done in parts of England. 



In our own country this specially deep tillage has been tested more 

 extensively in the semi-arid regions of the Middle West States. It is 

 now some eight or nine years since, during an exceptionally dry season, 

 a Mr. Campbell, who had been quietly carrying on farm experiments 

 for several years in South Dakota, astonished his neighbors by produc- 

 ing an average of 140 bushels of potatoes to the acre, while their crops 

 were nearly or quite failures. His land had been plowed very much 

 deeper than usual; the bottoms of the furrows being firmed by an 

 implement for the purpose, to conserve moisture, and the surface kept 

 fine. The results of Mr. Campbell's experiments attracted the atten- 

 tion of railroad men, and since then he has had in charge experiment 

 farms, mostly in the interests of railroads, in South Dakota, Nebraska, 

 and Kansas, with results that have attracted wide attention in this 

 country and abroad. Of course other devices are used to help secure 

 these results, but without the exceptionally deep plowing none of them 

 would avail. Not only has this new method of farming made grain- 

 raising profitable on those dry lands, but it has made fruit and timber 



