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Show SOIL MOISTURE IS REQUIRED Where Cover Crops Are Grown to Maintain Fertility at High Standard Stand-ard Much Water Is Needed. Tillage gives such measures of aeration aera-tion of the soil as to develop plant food. Chemical action liberates plant food by dissolving the inorganic elements ele-ments and forming solutions containing contain-ing plant food, writes E. F. Stephens in the Denver Field and Farm. The . more complete the aeration the strong-er strong-er the solution of plant food contained in the soil moisture. We all know . that the larger the amount of plant food available the less soil moisture is required to produce a pound of dry matter. In other words, a tree can grow and bear fruit in a well aerated soil with less soil moisture than is required re-quired to produce the same results with the tree feeding on a soil less effectively ef-fectively cultivated. Aeration therefore sets free increased in-creased quantities of plant food and enables the tree to get along with less water. A pint of very rich soup is more nourishing than a quart of thin gruel. The average planter will perhaps per-haps Irrigate his orchard three or four times In a season. Each irrigation is preceded by running a corrugator or some other method of opening furrows. fur-rows. This requires a team once over, after men have been employed to spread the water. Within forty-eight ' , hours some efficient implement must 1 be run to get the soil under cultiva- 9 tion or the land will crust, bake, crack open and soon be In worse condition than before. To get the soil back into as good a state of tillage as before the watering, we find ourselves compelled to cover It two or'three times, usually once with the Planet Junior and then each way with some implement like the Acme pulverizer or the Tower cultivator. Three and possibly four team operations opera-tions will be needed with each Irrigation Irriga-tion to recover the loose, lively, mellow mel-low soil condition in which we had the soil before watering, therefore three periods of Irrigation will mean covering cover-ing the field nine times with a team. In our experience add these nine cultivations cul-tivations to seven to nine regular cultivations cul-tivations and we have sixteen to eighteen cultivations, which following a winter and spring rainfall such as we have had this season will in suitable suit-able soil go a long way towards conserving con-serving moisture for the summer. There seems to be no question that a tree that Is efficiently and thoroughly thorough-ly cultivated finds more favorable con- J ditions for vigorous growth and early I fruitfulnes.s than the orchard that is sometimes too wet, sometimes too dry, and handled in the manner ofttimes noted. This applies especially to young orchards. This method is not applicable in the same degree with the older or bearing orchards since an orchard or-chard aged sixteen to twenty years needs probably seven or eight times a much soil moisture as does the one up to the age of five yearse. To maintain main-tain soli fertility requires cover crops. To grow a crop of clover, vetch or alfalfa In the orchard and thus keep its fertility at the highest standard needed for productiveness will doubtless doubt-less require several Inches of water. It Is hardly practicable to maintain the same high state of tillage in the old orchard that can be given In the young one and water must either be stored In the sub-soil or applied at suitable times by sufficient Irrigation to maintain an ample supple of moisture mois-ture In the aged bearing orchard. r |