Chapter X: Part IV: Soils, Fertilizers and Irrigation (1)

What is Intensive Cultivation?

From whom can I receive instruction or information regarding intensive cultivation?

Intensive cultivation has, so far as we know, not been made the subject of any treatise or publication. Intensive cultivation means the use of a maximum amount of labor, fertilizers and water for products of high market value. There is no better example of intensive cultivation in the world than is afforded by the practice of the best market gardeners and producers of small fruit. Next to them, on larger areas, would be the policies and methods of the fruit growers of California. Intensive culture, then, is not a particular method or system, but consists in doing the best thing for maximum production of any product which is valuable enough to spend the large outlay which is required. Just how this cultivation should be done depends upon the nature of the product and the conditions of soil and climate in whatever locality intensive cultivation may be undertaken.

Can a Man Farm?

Is it possible for a man with a few acres well cared for and carefully tilled to make a living and pay out on a purchase of land at $123 per acre? Could a good carpenter make wages and take care of a small tract for a year or so until well under way?

We consider $125 per acre for good land with a good water right a fair price. Financing a farming operation depends more upon the man than upon the good land. There are men who would, by intensive cultivation of salable stuff and right use of water, pay off the full value of the land from its produce in a couple of years. Others will never pay off. Of course, the nearer you can come to paying for the land at the beginning, and the more money you have for improvements, the more satisfactory your situation should be in every respect. There is a good chance for carpenter work in colony development, and considerable self-help could be secured in that way. You do not say whether you know anything about farming. Farming is a very complicated business and a basic knowledge derived from experience is a proper foundation to build upon in the light of the fuller application of scientific principles.

Soil Depth for Citrus Trees.

I have a top soil of rich loam containing small rocks and pebbles. Underneath it is washed gravel, rocks, boulders, yellow sand, etc. What is the limit as to thinness before trees will not grow, or thrive?

Orange trees are growing quite successfully on shallow soil overlying clay where the use of water and fertilizers was carefully adjusted so as to keep the trees supplied with just the right amount. Under such conditions a good growth may be expected so long as this treatment is maintained. There should be, however, not less than three feet of good soil to make the large expenditure necessary to establish an orange orchard permanently productive, and all the depth you can get beyond three feet is desirable. We question the desirability of planting orange trees even on a good soil overlying gravel, rocks or sand. Roots will penetrate such material only a short distance usually. It is almost impossible with such a leachy foundation to keep the surface soil properly moistened and enriched; You are apt to lose both water and fertilizer into the too rapid drainage.

Soils and Oranges.

I find this entire district underlaid with hardpan at various depths, from 1 to 6 feet down, and of various thicknesses. This hardpan is more or less porous and seeps up water to some extent, but is too hard for roots to penetrate. It is represented to me that if this hard pan is down from 4 to 5 feet it does not interfere with the growth of the orange tree or its producing. Is 4 or 5 feet of the loam enough?

Four or five feet of good soil over a hardpan, which was somewhat porous, is likely to be satisfactory for orange planting. There has been trouble from hardpan too near the surface and from the occurrence of a hardpan too rich in lime, which has resulted in yellow leaf and other manifestations of unthrift in the tree. Discussion of this subject is given on page 434 of the fifth edition of our book on "California Fruits," where we especially commend a good depth of "strong, free loam." This does not mean necessarily deep. The orange likes rather a heavier soil, while a deep sandy loam is preferred by some other fruits. If you keep the moisture supply regular and right and feed the plant with fertilizers, as may be required, the soil you mention is of sufficient depth - if it is otherwise satisfactory.

Oranges Over High Ground Water.

Does California experience show that citrus trees can be grown upon land successfully where the water-level is 6 feet from the surface; that is, where water is found at that level at all seasons and does not appear to rise higher during the rainy season?

We do not know of citrus trees in California with ground-water permanently at six feet below the surface. If the soil should be a free loam and the capillarity therefore somewhat reduced, orange trees would probably be permanently productive. If the soil were very heavy, capillary rise might be too energetic and saturate the soil for some distance above the water-level. In a free soil without this danger the roots could approach the water as they find it desirable and be permanently supplied. Orange trees are largely dependent upon a shallow root system, the chief roots generally occupying the first four feet below the surface. From this fact we conclude that deep rooting is not necessary to the orange, although unquestionably deep rooting and deep penetration for water are desirable as allowing the tree to draw upon a much greater soil mass and therefore be less dependent upon frequent irrigations and fertilizations.

Depth of Ground-Water.

Is there probable harm from water standing 12 feet from the surface in an orchard? Also probable age of trees before any effect of said water would be felt by them? The soil is almost entirely chocolate dry bog. - W. E. Wahtoke.

Water at twelve feet from the surface is desirable, and water at that point will be indefinitely desirable for the growing of fruit trees. Of course, conditions would change rapidly as standing water might approach more nearly to the surface, a condition which has to be carefully guarded against in irrigation. But it can come nearer than twelve feet without danger.

Summer Fallow and Summer Cropping.

I own some hill land which has been run down by continuous hay cropping. I am told that a portion must be summer-fallowed each year, but I wish to grow some summer crop on this fallow ground that will both enrich the soil and at the same time furnish good milk-producing feed for cows - thoroughly cultivating it between the rows. What crop would be best? I am told the common Kaffir or Egyptian corn are both soil enriching and milk producing.

If you grow a summer crop on the summer-fallowed upland, you lose the chief advantage of summer fallowing, which is the storing of moisture for the following year's crop. A cultivated crop would waste less moisture than a broadcast crop, surely, but on uplands without irrigation it would take out all the moisture available and not act in the line of a summer fallow.

Kaffir corn is not soil enriching. It has no such character. It probably depletes the soil just as much as an ordinary corn or hay crop. It is a good food to continue a milking period into the dry season, but you must be careful not to allow your cattle to get too much green sorghum, for it sometimes produces fatal results. We do not know anything which you can grow during the summer without irrigation which would contribute to the fertility of your land. If you had water and could grow clover or some legume during the summer season, the desired effect on the soil would be secured.

Soils and Crop Changes.

Peas and sweet peas do not grow well continuously in the same ground. I know this practically in my experience, but in no book have I ever found why they do not grow.

There are two very good reasons why some classes of plants cannot be well grown continuously in the same piece of ground. One is the depletion of available plant food, the other the formation of injurious compounds by the plants, or the gradual increase of fungoid, bacterial or animate pests in the soil, which finally become abundant enough to seriously hinder growth. Different plants take the plant foods, as nitrogen, lime, potash, phosphates, etc., in different proportion. More important, perhaps, is the fact that the root acids that extract these foods are of different types and strength. Thus before many seasons it may happen that most of the plant food of one or more kinds may be nearly exhausted as far as that kind of plant is concerned that has grown there continually, while there would be plenty of easily available food for plants with a different kind of root system and different root acids, etc. This is one reason why rotation of crops is so good; it gives a combination of root acids and root systems to the soil during a term of years, and it also frees the soil from one certain kind of organism because it cannot survive the absence of the particular plants on which it thrives.

Summer-Fallow Before Fruit Planting.

I recently bought a ranch at Sheridan, Placer county, and was intending to put 10 acres to peaches and 50 acres to wheat or barley, but the residents tell me that the land must be summer-fallowed before I can do anything. The soil is a red loam and has not been plowed for six years.

Your local advisers are probably right as to the necessity for summer-fallowing in order to conserve moisture from a previous year's rainfall and to get the land otherwise into good condition. There might be such a generous rainfall that an excellent crop might come without summer-fallowing, and the results will depend upon the rainfall. If it should be small in amount, you might not recover your seed. By the same sign you might not get much growth on your fruit trees, but you could help them by constant cultivation and by using the water-wagon if the season should be very dry. Therefore, you are likely to do better with trees than with grain without summer-fallowing, although even for trees it is a decided advantage to have more moisture stored in the subsoil and the surface soil pulverized by more tillage.

Defects in Soil Moisture.

I have apricot trees that appear to be almost dead; all but a very few small green leaves are gone, and they look bad, still I think they might be saved if I only knew what to do.

Presumably your apricot tree is suffering from too much standing water during the dormant season, or from a lack of water during the dry season. The remedy would be to correct moisture conditions, either by underdrainage for winter excess or by irrigation for summer deficiency. When a tree gets into a position such as you describe, it should be cut back freely and irrigation supplied, if the soil is dry, in the house that the roots may be able to restore themselves and promote a new growth in the top.

Dry Plowing for Soil and Weed Growth.

Is there any scientific reason to support the belief that it is injurious to the soil to dry-plow it for seeding to grain this fall and winter? Will dry-plowing now cause a worse growth of filth after the rains than the customary fallowing in the spring? Should the stubble be burned, or plowed under!

The points against dry-plowing to which you allude may arise from two claims or beliefs: first, that turning up land to the sun has a tendency to "burn out the humus"; second, that dry-plowing may leave the land so rough and cloddy that a small rainfall is currently lost by evaporation and leaves less moisture available for a crop than if it is plowed in the usual way after the rains. The first claim is probably largely fanciful, so far as an upturning in the reduced sunshine of the autumn goes. Whatever there may be in it would occur in vastly increased degree in a properly worked summer-fallow, and even that is negligible, because of the greater advantage which the summer-fallow yields. There may be cases in which one will get less growth on dry-plowing than on winter plowing, if the land is rough and the rain scant, and yet dry-plowing before the rains is a foundation for moisture reception and retention - if the land is not only plowed, but is also harrowed or otherwise worked down out of its large cloddy condition. When that is done, dry-plowing may be a great help toward early sowing and large growth afterward. As for weeds, dry-plowing may help their starting, but that is an advantage and not otherwise, because they can be destroyed by cultivation before sowing. If the land is full of weed seed, the best thing to do is to start it and kill it. The trouble with dry-plowing probably arises, not from the plowing, but from lack of work enough between the plowing and the sowing. Stubble should often be burned: it depends upon the soil and the rainfall. On a heavy soil with a good rainfall, plowing-in stubble is an addition to the humus of the soil, because conditions favor its reduction to that form, and there is moisture enough to accomplish that and promote also a satisfactory growth of the new crop.

Treatment of Dry-Plowed Land.

We are plowing a piece of light sandy mesa land, dry, which has considerable tarweed and other weeds growing before plowing. Which would be best, to leave the land as it is until the rains come and then harrow, or harrow now? Would the land left without harrowing gather any elements from the air before rain comes! The above land is for oat hay and beans next season.

Roll down the 'tar-weed, if it is tall and likely to be troublesome, and plow in at once so that decay may begin as soon as the land gets moisture from the rain. It would be well to allow the land to lie in that shape, and disc in the seed without disturbing the weeds which have been plowed under. If all this is done early, with plenty of rain coming there is likely to be water enough to settle the soil, decay the weeds, and grow the hay crop. Of course, such practice could not be commenced much later in the season. The land gains practically nothing from the atmosphere by lying in its present condition. If there is any appreciable gain, it would be larger after breaking up as proposed. In dry farming, harrowing or disking should be done immediately after plowing, not to produce a fine surface as for a seed bed, but to settle the soil enough to prevent too free movement of dry air. If your rainfall is ample, the land may be left looser for water-settling.

For a Refractory Soil.

What can I do to soil that dries out and crusts over so hard that it won't permit vegetable growth? A liberal amount of stable manure has been applied, and the land deeply plowed, harrowed and cultivated, but as soon as water gets on it, it forms a deep crust on evaporation. Will guano help, or is sodium nitrate or potash the thing?

None of the things you mention are of any particular use for the specific purpose you describe. Keep on working in stable manure or rotten straw, or any other coarse vegetable matter, when the soil is moist enough for its decay. Plow under all the weeds you can grow, or green barley or rye, and later grow a crop of peas or vetches to plow in green. Keep at this till the pesky stuff gets mellow. If you think the soil is alkaline, use gypsum freely; if not, dose it with lime to the limit of your purse and patience, and put in all the tillage you can whenever the soil breaks well.

More Manure, Water and Cultivation Required.

I have a small place on a hillside, with brown soil about one to two feet deep to hardpan and I am getting rather discouraged, as so many things fail to come up and others grow so very slowly after they are up. A neighbor planted some dahlia roots the same time I did. Only one of mine came up and it is not in bloom yet, while several of his have been blooming for some weeks and are ten times as large in mass of foliage as mine with its lone stalk and one little bud on the top. Peas came up and kept dying at the bottom with blossoms at the top tilt they were four or five feet high, but I never could get enough peas for a mess. Can you help me get this thing right?

Use of stable manure and water freely. Your trouble probably lies either in the lack of plant food or of moisture in the soil. This, of course, is supposing that you cultivate well so that the moisture you use shall not be evaporated and the ground hardened by the process. During the summer a good surface application of stable manure to which water can be applied would be better than to work manure into the soil, which should be done at the beginning of the rainy season. As your soil is so shallow it will be well for you to stand along the side of the plant much of the time with a bucket of water in one hand and a shovel of manure in the other.

Planting Trees in Alkali Soil.

My land contains a considerable quantity of both the black and white alkalies, the upper two feet being a rather heavy, sticky clay, the next three feet below being fine sand, containing more or less alkali, while immediately underneath this sand is a dense black muck in which, summer and winter, is found the ground-water. Do you think the following method of setting trees would be advantageous. Excavate for each tree a hole three feet in diameter and three feet deep. Fill in a layer of three or four inches of coarse hay, forming a lining for the excavation. Then fill the hole with sandy loam in which the tree is to be set. The sandy loam would give the young tree a good start, while the lining of hay would break up the capillary attraction between the filled-in sand and the ground-water in the surrounding alkali-charged soil.

The fresh soil which you put in would before long be impregnated through the surface evaporation of the rising moisture, which your straw lining would not long exclude. The trees would not be permanently satisfactory under such conditions as you describe, though they might grow well at first. It would be interesting, of course, to make a small-scale experiment to demonstrate what would actually occur and it would, perhaps, give you a chance to sell out to a tenderfoot.

Planting in Mud.

Why does ground lose its vitality or its growing qualities when it is plowed or stirred when wet, and does this act in all kinds of soil in the same way? We are planting a fig and olive orchard at the present time, but some were planted when the ground was extremely wet. The holes were dug before the rain and after a heavy rain they started to plant. After placing the trees in the holes they filled them half full with wet dirt, in fact so wet that it was actually slush. What would you advise under the circumstances and what can be done to counteract this? We have not finished filling in the holes since the planting was done, which was about a week ago.

The soil loses its vitality after working when too wet, because it is thrown into bad mechanical (or physical) condition and therefore becomes difficult of root extension and of movement of moisture and air. How easily soil may be thrown into bad mechanical condition depends upon its character. A light sandy loam could be plowed and trees planted as you describe without serious injury perhaps, while such a treatment of a clay would bring a plant into the midst of a soil brick which would cause it to spindle and perhaps to fail outright. The best treatment would consist in keeping the soil around the roots continually moist, yet not too wet. The upper part of the holes should be filled loosely and the ground kept from surface compacting. The maintenance of such a condition during the coming summer will probably allow the trees to overcome the mistake made at their planting, unless the soil should be a tough adobe or other soil which has a disposition to act like cement.

Electro-Agriculture.

Kindly tell me of any one who is working upon the application of electricity to stimulating agricultural growth-especially here on the Coast. A friend who has done some work in this line seeks to interest me. I have seen notices of this work, and have read of Professor Arrhenius stimulating the mental activity of children, etc., but I desire more definite information, if possible. Does the idea seem to you to be feasible?

So far as we know, there has been no local trial of the effect of electric light in stimulating plant growth. Much has been done with it in Europe and in this country. There is much about it in European scientific literature. It is perfectly rational that increased growth should be attained by continuous light in the same way, though in less degree than occurs in the extreme north during the period of the midnight sun. It is known that moonlight, to the extent of its illumination, increases plant growth, and it has been amply demonstrated that light is light, just as heat is heat, irrespective of the source thereof. Of course, the commercial advantage must be sought in the relative amount of increased growth and the selling value of whatever is gained in point of time.

High Hardpan and Low Water.

What detriment is hardpan if 14 inches below the surface and in some places 12 inches? I have been plowing so I could set peach trees, but I have been told that they will not grow. I would like your opinion about it. I intended to blast holes for the trees, and the water is 30 feet from surface. The top soil is red sandy and clay mixed, but it works very easily.

You cannot expect much from trees on such a shallow soil over hardpan without breaking it up, because the soil mass available to the trees is small; also because the shallow surface layer over hardpan will soon dry out in spite of the best cultivation, because there is no moisture supply from below. If such a soil should be selected for fruit trees at all, the breaking through the hardpan by dynamite or otherwise is desirable, and irrigation will be, probably, indispensable.

Depth of Cultivation.

I would be glad to know whether in cultivating an orchard a light-draft harrow could profitably be used, which cultivates three and a half inches deep? I have used another cultivator, and try to have it go at least seven inches.

A depth of 3 1-2 inches is not satisfactory in orchard cultivation, although there may be some condition under which greater depth would be difficult to obtain because of root injury to trees, which have been encouraged to root near the surface. Both experience and actual determinations of moisture in this State show that cultivation to a depth of 5 inches conserves twice as much moisture in the lower soil as can be saved by a 3-inch depth of cultivation under similar soil conditions and water supply. It is all the better to go 7 inches if young trees have been treated that way from the beginning.

Alfalfa Over Hardpan.

I have land graded for alfalfa and some of the checks are low and water will stand on the low checks in the winter. There is on an average from two to three feet of soil on top of hardpan and hardpan is about two feet thick. Will water drain off the low checks if the hardpan is dynamited, and will this land grow alfalfa with profit?

Yes; much of the hardpan in your district is thin enough and underlaid by permeable strata so that drainage is readily secured by breaking up the hardpan. Standing water on dormant alfalfa is not injurious.

Trees Over High-Water.

Which are the best fruit trees to plant on black adobe soil with water table between 3 and 4 feet from surface? The soil is very rich and productive. The land is leveled for alfalfa also; will the alfalfa disturb the growth of trees?

We would not plant such land to fruit at all, except a family orchard. The fruits most likely to succeed are pears and pecans. On such land alfalfa should not hurt trees unless it is allowed to actually strangle them. The alfalfa may help the trees by pumping out some of the surplus water.

Soil Suitable for Fruits.

I am sending samples of soil in which there are apricots and prunes growing, and ask you to examine it with reference to its suitability for other fruits. Will lemons thrive in this soil?

It is not necessary to have analysis of the soil. If you find by experience that apricot and prune trees are doing well, it is a demonstration of its suitability for the orange, so far as soil is concerned. The same would also be a demonstration for soil suitability for the lemon because the lemon is always grown on orange root. The thing to be determined is whether the temperature conditions suit the lemon and whether you have an irrigation supply available, because citrus fruits, being evergreen, require about fifty per cent more moisture than deciduous fruits, and they are not grown successfully anywhere in this State without irrigation, except, possibly, on land with underflow. The matter to determine then is the surety of suitable temperatures and water supply.

For Blowing Soils.

I am going to dry-sow rye late this fall. I want some leguminous plant to seed with the rye for a wind-break crop, not to plow under. The land varies from heavy loam to blow-sand. I have under consideration sweet clover, burr clover, vetches. I see occasional stray plants of sweet clover (the white-blossomed) growing in the alfalfa on both hard and sandy soil. I read in an Eastern bee journal that sweet clover can be sowed on hard uncultivated land with success. Could I grow it on the hard vacant spots that occur in the alfalfa fields?

You can sow these leguminous plants all along during the earlier part of the rainy season (September to December) except that they will not make a good start in cold ground which does not seem to bother rye much. But on sand you are not likely to get cold, waterlogged soil, so you can put in there whenever you like - the earlier the better, however, if you have moisture enough in the soil to sustain the growth as well as start it. We should sow rye and common vetch. Sweet clover will grow anywhere, from a river sandbar to an uncovered upland hardpan, but it will not do much if your vacant spots are caused by alkali.

More Than Dynamite Needed.

I have some peculiar land. People here call it cement. It does not take irrigation water readily, and water will pass over it for a long time and not wet down more than an inch or so. When really wet it can be dipped up with a spoon. Hardpan is down about 24 to 36 inches. I have tried blowing up between the vines with dynamite, and see little difference. Can you suggest anything to loosen up the soil?

You could not reasonably expect dynamite to transform the character of the surface soil except as its rebelliousness might in some cases be wholly due to lack of drainage - in that case blasting the hardpan might work wonders. But you have another problem, viz: to change the physical condition of the surface soil to prevent the particles from running together and cementing. This is to be accomplished by the introduction of coarse particles, preferably of a fibrous character. To do this the free use of rotten straw or stable manure, deeply worked into the soil, and the growth of green crops for plowing under, is a practical suggestion. Such treatment would render your soil mellow, and, in connection with blasting of the hardpan to prevent accumulation of surplus water over it, would accomplish the transformation which you desire. The cost and profit of such a course you can figure out for yourself.

Is Dynamite Needed?

I have an old prune orchard on river bottom lands; soil about 15 or 16 feet deep. Quite a number of trees have died, I presume from old age. I desire to remove them and to replace them with prune trees. I have been advised to use dynamite in preparing the soil for the planting of the new trees.

Whether you need dynamite or not depends upon the condition of the sub-soil. If you are on river flats with an alluvial soil, rather loose to a considerable depth, dynamiting is not necessary. If, by digging, you encounter hardpan, or clay, dynamiting may be very profitable. This matter must be looked into, because the failure of trees on river lands is more often due to their planting over gravel streaks, which too rapidly draw off water and cause the tree to fail for lack of moisture. In such cases dynamite would only aggravate the trouble. Dynamiting should be done in the fall and not in the spring. The land should have a chance to settle and readjust itself by the action of the winter rains; otherwise, your trees may dry out too much next summer.

Improving Heavy Soils.

What is adobe? What kind of plants will grow best in adobe? In this Redwood City I find clay-like soil which looks very dark and heavy. What kind of plants will grow best in this soil?

The term adobe does not mean any particular kind of soil. It is applied locally to clay and clay-loam soils indiscriminately. It generally signifies the heaviest, stickiest, crackingest soil in the vicinity. Most plants will grow well on heavy soils if they are kept from getting too dry and too full of water. This is done by using plenty of stable manure and other coarse stuff to make the soil more friable, which favors aeration, drainage, root extension and plant thrift. Friability is also promoted by the use of lime and by good tillage. The particular soil to which you refer is a black clay loam which can be improved in all the ways stated. It is a good soil for most flowers and vegetables if handled as suggested. You can get hints of what does best by studying your neighbors' earlier plantings.

For a Reclaimed Swamp.

I have land, formerly a pond which dried up in the summer months. It has been thoroughly drained now for several years. The land surrounding it is good fertile soil and produces good crops. On this piece, however, crops come up and look fairly well until about two inches high when they turn yellow and die. Mesquite grass and strawberries seem to be the only crops that will live, and they do not do at all well. Sorrel grows abundantly in the natural state.

Apparently the reclaimed land which you speak of needs liming to overcome the acidity in the soil. Common builders' lime applied at the rate of 1000 pounds to the acre at the beginning of the rainy season ought to make the land much more productive and the soil, at the same time, more friable. Deep plowing with aeration will also help the land, and this treatment can begin at once if the soil is workable. Other additions of lime can be made later as they may be required to make the improvement permanent.

Improving Uncovered Subsoil.

What is the best treatment for spots that have been scraped in leveling for irrigation?

The land can be improved by plowing deeply and turning in stable manure or green alfalfa or any other vegetable matter which may decay, rendering the soil rich in humus and more friable. Of course, it will take some time to accomplish this improvement, and it is necessary that there be moisture enough present to cause the material to decay in order that the improvement may be secured.

Sand for Clay Soils.

Will beach sand do adobe or clay soil any good? It gets hard at times and I thought that if I was to put beach sand in the ground the salt in the sand would do the ground harm.

It is certainly desirable to mix sand with heavy soil for the purpose of making it lighter - that is, better drained and more friable and therefore improving it for the growth of plants. Sometimes beach sand contains a good deal of salt, which, however, is readily removed by fresh water, and sand hauled and exposed to the rains rapidly loses any excess of salt it may contain. Probably with such an amount of sand as you are likely to use to mix with your adobe, there is no danger at all from salt. Even if such sand should contain considerable salt, if applied at the beginning of the rainy season it would be so quickly distributed as to not constitute a menace to the growth of plants. The worst adobe can be transformed into a most beautiful garden soil by the application of sand and stable manure.

Plowing from or Towards.

Which is the proper way to plow an orchard? First to plow to the trees and then to plow from them, or to plow from the trees and then to them, and your reasons? I have had many arguments with my neighbor farmers.

There is difference of opinion everywhere as to whether the first plowing should be toward or away from the trees. In places where the soil is pretty heavy and the rainfall is apt to be quite large, plowing toward the trees and opening a dead furrow near the center seems to promote rapid distribution of surplus water. If the rainfall is less and arrangements for deep penetration are more necessary, the plowing can well be away from the trees, so as to direct the water toward the row. It is, of course, exceedingly important in this case, that the land should be worked back before it has a chance to dry out by exposure and this is one of the chief objections to the practice, because one is apt to let the land lie away from the trees, hoping for a late rain which may not come. Whatever theoretical advantages there may be in either of these methods, they can only be secured by the greatest care to avoid the dangers which attend them. This uncertainty is the reason why people so generally disagree as to which is the best practice, and they are right in disagreeing.

Dry Plowing and Sowing.

I dry-plowed my grain field to a depth averaging seven inches; it turned up very rough. I then disked and harrowed it, but it is still very rough. I intended to drill the seed, wait for sufficient rain, and harrow to a satisfactory condition, but have been advised to put no implement on after the drill, as a harrow would spoil the work done by the drill, and a slab or roller would cause the ground to bake. If I wait for rain to work the soil before drilling, it will bring the seeding too late.

You have probably done a pretty good job of dry work. If the land is still too rough for the drill, we should broadcast and harrow again. It is not desirable to harrow after the drill, and to roll or rub is likely to smooth too much, because the land would bake or crust after the heavy rains. This would cause loss of moisture and it is therefore better to leave the surface a little rough. You can roll lightly after the grain is up, if the surface seems to need closing a little.

Artesian Water.

I have a large tract of adobe soil, a black clay top soil. For about five months in the year there is not sufficient water on the place. I have sunk wells in different parts, but with very poor results, the further we went down the drier and harder the soil got. What little water we did obtain was unfit for domestic use. Can you give me an idea as to what might be the result of an artesian well in such soil?

Artesian water has nothing to do with the soils. It is a deeper proposition than that. Artesian water comes from gravel strata overlaid with impervious layers of rock or clay in such a way that water in the gravel is under pressure because the gravel leads up and away to some point where water is poured into it by rain falling or snow melting on mountain or high plateau. As the water cannot get out of this gravel until you punch a hole in its lid, its effort will be to shoot up to something less than the elevation at which it gained entrance to this gravel - as soon as your puncture gives it a chance. Geologists who know the locality may be able to tell you that you have little or no chance, but no one can tell you whether you have a good chance or not until he has tested the matter by boring. The quality of the artesian water is determined by its distant source and the bad water you have found is therefore no indication of the quality of what may be below it. No one should enter an artesian undertaking, except to tap a stratum of known depth, without a long purse. Probably one in a thousand of the bores made into the crust of the earth yields as many gallons of artesian water as gallons of various liquids used in boring it - and yet some of them are good wells to pump from because they pierce other strata carrying water, but not under pressure causing it to rise.

Treatment of Alkali.

I am advised that in some cases alkali may be drained and that in others it is treated with gypsum.

Gypsum is not a cure for alkali, but simply a means of transforming black alkali into white, which is less corrosive and therefore less destructive to plants, but there may be easily too much white alkali present - so much that the land would be made sterile by it. You cannot remove alkali by flooding unless two conditions can be assured: first, that the water itself is free from alkali before application to the land; second, that you underdrain the land at a depth of from three to four feet with tile, so that the fresh water on the surface can flow through the soil into the drains, carrying away from the land the alkali, which it dissolves in its course. To flood land even with fresh water without making arrangements for carrying off the alkali water below, is to increase the alkali on the surface as the water evaporates, and such treatment does land injury rather than benefit. We cannot give you any estimate as to the cost of washing out. It depends altogether upon local conditions: whether you use hand work or machinery for the ditching, and what your water will cost.

Alkali, Gypsum and Shade Trees.

Kindly advise how to apply gypsum, and how much, to heavy, sticky soil, the worst sort of adobe and heavily saturated with alkali. We want to plant shade trees. Eucalyptus and peppers succeed fairly well after once started. Gypsum seems to help, but I don't know how much to use.

The amount of gypsum required to neutralize black alkali depends upon how much black alkali there is to be neutralized, and no definite amount, therefore, can be prescribed beforehand as sufficient without a determination of the amount of alkali. In some experiments gypsum to the amount of thirty tons to the acre or more has been used just for the purpose of seeing how much the land would take, and a fine growth of grain has been secured after using that much gypsum, but that, of course, would be out of the question because the outlay would be more than the land or the crop would be worth.

In the planting of trees at some distance apart, the tree can be protected from destruction and enabled to make a stand in the soil by using gypsum on the spot rather than the treatment of the whole surface. In this way five or ten pounds of gypsum could be used by mixing with the soil to fill a good-sized hole.

Distribution of Alkali.

I am told by all the ranchers on the east and south sides of the valley that their wells are excellent. But they all say that on the west side - they are bringing up alkali. One also said that the water level was rising throughout all the valley. Is it safe to depend on this in part, or will the alkali spread over all the valley and the foothills?

It is not unusual to find people who predict the rise of alkali almost anywhere except on their own premises. No one can exactly tell where alkali will go, because no one has complete knowledge of the water movement in underlying strata. Wherever the ground water rises on lower levels because of irrigation on higher levels there is danger of the rising of the alkali, for which the only cure is underdrainage with tile so that this rising water is carried to an outflow and not allowed to approach within three or four feet of the surface. If you have such an outflow and desire to undertake the expense of tiling, you can insure yourself against a serious rise of alkali indefinitely. We do not see, however, how alkali can rise to the higher lands of the valley. Its first effect would be to make lakes or ponds in the lowest parts of the valley, and even then the surrounding mesa lands would not be injured.

Plants Will Tell About Alkali.

Please give information as to the application of gypsum to my soil which is somewhat alkaline. I do not care to have an analysis made of my soil, and believe that you can advise me without it.

If your soil is too alkaline for the growth of plants you can demonstrate that fact by experiment, or if it is capable of being used by the application of gypsum, that also can be determined by experiment and noting the behavior of the same plants afterwards. It is rather a slow process but it is sure enough.

Litmus and Alkali.

Is there any simple soil test for alkali that can be made without a chemical analysis?

You can ascertain the presence of alkali by using red litmus paper, which will be turned blue by the alkali in the soil, if the soil is moist enough. This does not determine the amount of alkali, but the quickness of the turning to the blue color and the depth of the color are both attained when the alkali is very strong. When there is less alkali, the reaction is slower and weaker. This test, however, gives you only a rough idea whether the soil is suitable for growing plants. You can tell that better by the appearance of the plants which you find. Any druggist can furnish the litmus paper, and give you a demonstration of how it acts on contact with alkali.

Using Gypsum for Alkali.

Is it better, to kill the black alkali in the soil with gypsum, just to scatter it over an alkalied spot or to plow the soil first and then use the gypsum? I am going to sow alfalfa.

Use the gypsum after plowing, for it will wet down more quickly, and the gypsum has to be dissolved to act freely. The best way to cure your spot is to run an underdrain into it, if possible, so the rain-water can run through the soil freely and take the alkali with it.

Blasting or Tiling.

In planting trees where hardpan is four feet from the surface is it necessary to blast the hardpan, or is there no benefit derived by the blasting?

If there should be a good available soil under a shallow layer of hardpan, which you say is four feet from the surface, it might be of considerable advantage to bore into the hardpan and explode a dynamite cartridge in it. But if your good soil is really only four feet deep and hardpan continuous below, the blast might cause fissures which would prevent standing water in the upper stratum. If you are sure of four feet of good soil above the hardpan you will have no difficulty in growing good trees, if you get the moisture just right and the hardpan slopes in such a way that surplus moisture will move away. If, however, you have hardpan at different depths on the tract, so that it may really make basins which will hold water, you are likely to have trouble from accumulations of water which will not only prevent the roots extending to the full depths of the soil, but will also cause some trees to die. Such a danger could be removed by draining the soil to a depth of three and a half or four feet with tile, in order to prevent accumulations at any point. This would be expensive perhaps, but you would be sure that you had rendered your four feet of soil safe and available. If you trust to blasting you will have to wait several years for the trees to tell you whether you helped them or not.

Effects of Blasting.

I have land which is underlaid with hardpan two or three feet deep and this in turn is underlaid with sand or sandpan. What I would like to know is whether blasting the holes before setting trees would allow more moisture coming from this sandpan, or, rather, what effect it would have as to moisture.

We do not know. It might make the soil better for the trees by allowing escape for surplus water through previous layers. It might allow the tree to root more deeply for moisture in those strata. It might allow water to rise from such strata if they have water under pressure. It might do other things good or bad, according to conditions prevailing under the hardpan. If you are to irrigate the land the effects would probably be good.

The Sub-soil Plow.

I am contemplating using a sub-soil plow for the purpose of breaking plow-sole on grain land. This is about 4 1/2 inches below the surface and is about 5 inches thick. This soil is comparatively loose and seems to be of good quality. Do you think that the sub-soil plow run low enough to break this plow-sole will benefit the land?

There can be no question about the benefit of breaking up this tight stratum, provided you use a long-tooth harrow or a subsoil packer afterward to reduce the land so that it will not be too open to loss of moisture by too free circulation of air. The best way to treat such a soil would be to use a tractor and plow to a full foot of depth, for this, followed by good harrowing, would disintegrate the hard stuff and commingle it with the loose surface soil and make it somewhat more retentive - doing this when the moisture is just right for disintegration and mixing. If you are not ready to go to this expense, a subsoiler, following the plow with another team, would put your land in better shape for dry farming or for irrigation than it is now. Starting late, however, might give you less crop the first year on such deep working than by shallow plowing if the year's rainfall should be scant. It would, however, be a good start for summer-fallowing and a big crop the next year.

Sour Soil.

What is "sour" soil? Is that the name by which it is commonly known, and what is the treatment for it?

Sour soil is soil in which an acid is developed by plant decay and exclusion of air. The proper treatment is the application of lime, and aeration by open tillage and underdrainage.

Old Plaster for Sour Land.

Can house plaster be used in reclaiming sour ground and how much per acre? The ground produces some sour grass - not a great deal. The plaster is from an old building that is being torn down.

House plaster is desirable as an application to land which is sour. It also adds to the mellowness of land which is hard, because of the sand contained in it. It has always been considered a good dressing for garden land. So far as the correction of sourness goes, it is much less active than fresh lime, but it acts in the same way to a limited extent. It is certainly worth using, providing it does not cost too much for delivery, and can be freely used if the land is heavy and needs friability.

Application of Manure Ashes.

Having recently got a lot of manure plentifully supplied with redwood shavings that had been used with the bedding, and being afraid to use the same in that shape, as it takes such a long time for the wood to rot, I reduced the pile to a heap of ashes. How can it be best applied to ornamental trees and shrubbery in a light gravelly soil?

You have done unwisely in burning the manure. We would have taken the risk of a single use of shavings for the sake of the manurial matter associated with them, and this risk of too much lightening of a gravelly soil would be especially small in connection with deep rooting plants like ornamental trees and shrubbery. You have left merely the skeleton of the manure, and much of that of doubtful solubility, if the temperature ran very high by burning in a mass. You need not be fearful about using these ashes. Scatter or spread them over the ground just as you would have spread the manure, let the rains dissolve and carry down what they can and go on with your usual methods of cultivation.

The Best Fertilizer for Sand.

How can I best fertilize soil that is pure sand?

The best fertilizer for pure sand is well-rotted stable manure, because it not only supplies all kinds of plant food, but increases the humus in the soil, which is exceedingly important in making the sand more retentive of moisture as well as more productive.

Fertilizers in Tree Holes.

Would it be harmful to add 2 or 3 pounds of steamed bone meal to the hole of a young tree just before planting?

There would be no injury, providing you mix it with a considerable amount of soil by digging over the bottom of the hole, but our conviction is that on lands which are good enough for the commercial planting of fruit trees, it is not necessary to stimulate a young tree in this way, but that it is better to postpone the use of fertilizers until the trees come into bearing and show the desirability of more liberal feeding. Of course, if young trees do not make satisfactory growth, they may be stimulated either with some kind of a fertilizer or with a freer use of water, and it is generally the latter that they are chiefly in need of.

Wood Ashes and Tomatoes.

Is there any harm to vegetable growing to dig sufficient of wood ashes in for mellowing heavy soil? My tomato plants grew splendidly this year, but the fruits were all rough and wrinkled. I gave them plenty of horse and poultry manure at planting and plenty of wood ashes and falling leaves of cypress later.

Wood ashes do not mellow a heavy soil. The effect of the potash is to overcome the granular structure and increase compactness. Coal ashes, because they are coarser in particles and devoid of potash, do promote mellowness, and are valuable mechanically on a heavy soil although they do not contain appreciable amounts of plant food. You are overfeeding your tomato plants, probably. The chances are that you had poor seed. There is no best tomato, because you ought to grow early and late kinds: there is also some difference in the behavior of varieties in different places.

Was It the Potash or the Water?