OCR Text |
Show SOIL MOISTURE IS REQUIRED Where Cover Crops Are Crown to Maintain Fertility at High Standard Stand-ard Much Water Is Needed. Tillage gives such measures of aeration aera-tion of the soli as to develop plant food. Chemical action liberates plant food by dissolving the Inorganic el-menta el-menta and forming solutions containing contain-ing s'ant food, writes K. K. Stephens In the Denver Field and Farm. The more complete the aeration the stronger strong-er the solution of plant food contalued in the soli moisture. We all know trat 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 leaa soil moisture thnn la required re-quired . to produce the same reaults 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 leas water. A pint of very rich soup la more nourishing than a quart of thQ gruel. The average planter will pert haps Irrigate his orchard three or four times In a season. Kach Irrigation if preceded by running a corrugator or some other method of opening fur rowa. This requires a team once over, after men have been employed to spread the water. Within forty-right hours some efficient implement must be run to get the soli under cultivation cultiva-tion or the land will crust, bake, crack open and soon be In worso condition than before. To get the soil back Into ns good a state of Ullage as before the watering, wo find ourselves compelled to cover It two or three times, usually one with the Planet Junior and then each way with some Implement like the Acme pulveriser 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 aoll condition In which we had tho soil before watering, therefore threo perloda of Irrigation will mean covering cover-ing the field nine times with a team. In our experience add these nine cul-tlvationa cul-tlvationa to seven to nine regular cultivations cul-tivations and we have sixteen to eighteen cultlvallona. which following a win.'er and spring rainfall such as we have had thla season will in suitable suit-able soil go a long way towards conserving con-serving mohiture for the summer. There serins to be no question that a tree that Is efficiently and thoroughly thorough-ly cultivated finds more favorable conditions con-ditions for vigorous growth and early frr'tfulneas than the orchard that la sometimes too wet, sometimes too dry, and handled In the manner ofttlmes noted. This applies especially to young orchards. This method Is not applicable In the same degree with the older or bearing orchards since an or-Shard or-Shard aged slxtern to twenty years needs probably rveven or eight times a much soil moisture as does the one up to the nge of five yearae. To maintain main-tain soli fertility requires cover crops. To grow a crop of -lover, vetch or alfalfa In the orchard end thus kp 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 muat either be stored In the aubaoil or applied at suitable times by sufficient irrigation to maintain an ample supple of moisture mois-ture in the aged bearing orchard. |