74 



as we ordinarily use these terms, to come within the broad hmits 

 impHed in the outset. 



There is a most intimate relationship between the moisture 

 supply and the mineral food supply because the latter is available 

 for the use of the tree only as it goes into solution in the water or 

 moisture that is in in the soil. 



Again, as soils of different types and in different conditions 

 may have different temperatures, there may be a temperature fac- 

 tor involved in the relation of a particular soil to the behavior of 

 a variety. 



Now suppose we thini< we have found for a particular variety 

 the exact type of soil both with regard to its physical condition, its 

 relation to the supply of plant food, moisture and temperature for 

 maximum results in every respect. Very well ! Hut the very next 

 season after we have reached our conclusions it may be abnormally 

 rainy, or abnormally dry or excessively hot or cold as the case 

 may be. We at once have ever}^ factor in our scheme thrown out 

 of adjustment and the relationships of food supply, moisture and 

 temperature are entirely disturbed. As a result we find our chosen 

 variety giving maximum results perhaps on an entirely different 

 type of soil from the one we have previously had under considera- 

 tion, even though that type remains unchanged as a type. 



Then, too, we have a variety growing on a particular type 

 of soil and giving certain results under some definite system of 

 soil culture and orchard management. We change our system of 

 management and totally different results follow. Yet the soil, as 

 a type remains the same. The thing I want to impress upon you 

 is simply this : Granting for the sake of the argument the possi- 

 bility of there being varietal preferences as to soil types within the 

 broad limitations already specified, the soil influences so far as 

 they affect the behavior of a variety are constantly at ^\'ork con- 

 jointly with all the other influences which go to make up the 

 environment — and a variety is largely the product of its environ- 

 ment. It therefore follows that when we consider the matter of 

 varietal adaptability we must consider it in the light of all the in- 

 fluences that affect its behavior in any way. A variety may be of 

 value or it may not be, depending upon the conditions under which 

 it is grown, and the better we understand those conditions, the 

 more nearly can we make them what we want them to be. 



There are various other phases of this matter I should like to 

 discwss but I am already too far from the point of my subject. 

 Time forbids that I wander farther away, except to say that we 

 are in the habit of looking upon many things as pertaining to the 

 soil in its relation to fruit growing that are not soil factors at all. 

 A soil that is too moist may need draining but that is a matter of 

 drainage, not of soils, per sc ; or too much moisture may be the 

 result of too much rain and that is a matter of climate, not of soils ; 

 a lack of moisture, or of plant food or of humus to modify the 

 physical condition — these have to do with soil management, not 

 with soil types and soil characteristics. But we sometimes charge 

 them all up to the soil I Methods of culture and of orchard man- 



