THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
27 
of this variety are decidedly exacting, and are best supplied 
by a medium loam underlain by a heavy loam or light clay 
loam. It should not be planted on a soil lighter than a 
heavy, dark, fine sandy loam underlain by a light clay loam. 
Good air drainage is also very essential with this variety. 
Tompkins King 
The* Tompkins King is fully as exacting as the Spy in 
soil adaptation. The tree does not develop a satisfactory 
growth on sandy soils, but succeeds best on a moist, yet 
well drained soil, i. e., the light Rhode Island Greening 
soils—a soil capable of maintaining such supply of moisture 
that the tree receives no check at the approach of drouth. 
But the fruit grown on soils so heavy, lacks clearness of 
skin, and the appearance of the apple is marred by the 
greenish look extending far up the sides from the blossom 
end, and the lack of well developed color which makes this 
fruit at its best very attractive. Hence the problem is to 
balance these two opposite tendencies as well as possible, 
and soil of the following description seems best to do this; 
light mellow loam, the sand content thereof being medium 
rather than fine, thus constituting an open textured loam 
rather than a fine loam. The subsoil should be either of the 
same texture or only slightly heavier, in no case being 
heavier than a very light, plastic clay loam. Subsoils 
inclining towards stiffness in structure should be carefully 
avoided. 
The varieties described cover for the climatic conditions 
that obtain in the so-called Baldwin district, the entire 
textural range of soils adapted to commercial apple growing. 
These five varieties are simply representative, and illus¬ 
trate in soil requirements the range from heavy to light 
soils, from the Rhode Island Greening to the Hubbardston. 
Many other varieties are, of course, adapted to the soils of 
this district, and the range of adaptation of each particular 
variety may or may not be identical with, or partially 
correspond to, any of those described. 
In a paper of this length is it impossible to describe in 
detail the soil requirements of very many varieties. Some 
fifteen other varieties have been studied in detail, within 
the general Appalachian region extending from New York 
to northern Alabama, which show plainly marked dif¬ 
ferences in varietal soil adaptations, but it was thought best 
for the purposes of this paper to describe only a group of 
varieties, which are of commercial importance in some given 
district. It has become apparent that a given soil is not 
equally well adapted to several varieties, but that it is best 
adapted to the production of some particular variety, or at 
most two or three closely related varieties. 
As already stated the soil is a factor which has received 
little study as to its adaptation to different varieties, but 
the lack of uniformity of results with the different varieties 
as grown by leading successful orchardists make it evident 
that in the future careful consideration must be accorded to 
the soil problem, quite as much as to the various other 
factors essential in apple production. 
Do not allow modesty or lack of business enterprise 
prevent you from advertising. 
CONDITIONS IN OKLAHOMA 
{Continued from page 22 ) 
still holding everything in its grip, conditions took on a very 
discouraging appearance, and it would seem that collections 
must be poor. To our surprise, collections have been as 
good as in many years of the past. All kinds of nursery 
stock seem to be scarce throughout Oklahoma. Especially 
is this the case in peach and plum. Under ordinary condi¬ 
tions, we would have had plum and peach sufficient to fill 
all orders, but the grand and perfect crop of plum and peach 
stimulated the sales on these to such an extent that we had 
what might be termed a house-cleaning time. Taking it 
all-in all, our past season has been good and satisfactory 
and with our usual spring trade next spring, we will come 
out a little ahead of many of our past seasons’ work. 
NEW JERSEY STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
The thirty-sixth annual meeting of this vSociety was held 
at the State House, Trenton, December 14 and 15, igio. 
The convention included five sessions. Besides papers from 
a number of the New Jersey State Experiment Station men 
and from horticulturists of the state, the program included 
an address by Prof. M. B. Waite of Washington on “New 
Sprays,’’ and an illustrated lecture on “Modern Orchard 
Methods,’’ by Charles E. Bassett, Secretary of the Michigan 
Horticultural Society. Premiums were offered on small 
collections of fruit, roses, violets, and carnations. 
MASSACHUSETTS APPLES 
As a result of the prize offers of the Massachusetts State 
Board of Agriculture for 1910, some interesting figures have 
been made public. Frederick A. Russell, of Methuen, 
received $25 for the best yield of marketable fruit from a 
single tree, 56 bushels from one Gravenstein. His nearest 
competitors were C. W. Mann, of Methuen, with 44 bushels 
of Baldwins, and Rev. N. B. Fiske, of Danvers, with 32^^ 
bushels of Wealthies. The Drew-Munson Fruit Co., Little¬ 
ton, received first prize of $50 for the best yield of market¬ 
able fruit from an acre of apple orchard trees in one solid 
block, 227 barrels of Baldwins. Next on the list was Rev. 
N. B. Fiske, 115 barrels of Baldwins. The first and second 
prizes of $30 and $20 for the best results from spraying went 
to Rev. N. B. Fiske and the Drew-Munson Fruit Co., 
respectively. 
ANOTHER FRUIT GROWERS’ ORGANIZATION. 
•On December 21, at Washington, D. C., representa¬ 
tives of fruit growing interests in the East met and organ¬ 
ized the Eastern Fruit Growers’ Association. Special at¬ 
tention was given to plans for co-operating with the various 
state horticultural societies and to unifying the present 
methods of marketing fruit. The officers of the new asso¬ 
ciation are as follows : S. L. Lupton, Winchester, Va., 
president ; Nat C. Frame, Martinsburg, W. Va., secretary: 
F. I. Oswald, Smithsburg, Md., treasurer, together with the 
following vice-presidents; James H. Harris, Stillpond, Md.; 
Stewart Bell, Winchester, Va.; G. L. Soper, Magnolia, Deb; 
C. B. Hart, Wheeling, W. Va.; R. M. Elden, Aspers, Pa., 
and A. T. Henry, Wallingford, Conn. The annual meet¬ 
ing will be held in Washington. 
