FERTILITY 



ture storage, and for the accumulation of nitrogen. 

 The ground should be tilled into a friable condi- 

 tion, so rootlets may grow in all directions, multi- 

 plying the sources of vitality. If beneficial crops 

 cover the land during seasons of hardest rains, 

 roots will hold leaching fertility for future use, 

 while top growth will prevent furrowing and gully- 

 ing by retarding surface flow. Just about the 

 time slopes are worked into a finely divided condi- 

 tion they often slip down into bottom lands, from 

 heavy rains, and leave the subsoil more or less bare ; 

 but if covered with an appreciable quantity of 

 stubble from grasses, truck or grains, movement is 

 checked, the woof of roots holding soil particles in 

 place. Bermuda grass is the best levee protection 

 our Louisiana neighbors have yet discovered. 



We must not underestimate the value of com- 

 mercial fertilizers, for a time will inevitably come 

 with every orchard when . the nourishment in the 

 ground will be insufficient to sustain normal 

 growth. The age limit of trees is largely depend- 

 ent upon fertility. Transplant a short-lived one to 

 fertile, moist soil, where evaporation is not ex- 

 cessive, and it will respond with vigorous growth 

 at an age otherwise past its prime. In the South 

 commercial trees are planted from ten to twenty 

 feet apart, instead of in forty and fifty foot spaces, 

 as in Asia and Kabylia, the nearness with which 

 they stand in this country greatly hastening the 

 time when no amount of cropping for manurial 



