Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-07-20

ance. The kind OF soil to be Sc
lected will naturally depend on
the crop to be grown. For the
home garden almost any of the soils OF
the state can be made to answer very
good purpose. An essential require
ment for both fruits and vegetables is
good drainage, either natural or arti-
ncial. This is especially necessary
where earliness is n question of i'm
portance, for wet sodden soils are al
ways cold and backward in the spring
Soils with certain amount of sand are
easier to cultivate, and will be more
suitable for most vegetables than heavy
clay soils. They can he planted ear
Her In the spring and will mature crops
earlier. Most fruits. on the other hand,
VIII, in this latitude, thrive better and
De freer from disease on rather stln
clay land than on very sandy soils. Per-
maps the most notable exception to this
statement is the case of the Oriental
pears lie Conte, Keiffer, etc., which
seem especially adapted to the moist
sandy soils OF the coast region. The
ideal truck soil is moist but not wet.
black sandy loan, containing abundant
vegetable matter; and preferably rest
ing on not too impervious red clay
subsoil. 1t should be nearly level, or
with gentle southern exposure. or
course the greater the natural fertility
the better. but after all this is not a
vital question, for there are no soils so
rich that they will stand continuous
trucking without frequent and heavy
applications of fertilizing material. The
mechanical condition, and moisture
holding capacity of the soil is really Of
greater Importance to the truck farm
er, than its chemical composition; and
these must be maintained by continu-
ally adding to its supply of vegetable
matter, either by applications OF sta
bic manure. or by blowing under green
crops. Only comparatively level lands
should be planted TO truck crops. On
steep broken hillsides too much fertil-
ity is lost by washing and there is too
much extra labor in cultivation. All
stumps, rocks or other distractions
should be carefully removed in order
TO admit the use of modern cultivating
sometimes utilized by planting them TO
fruit trees and especially to grape
vines. Fine fruit can be grown in such
locations, and in some cases it may be
the best way of using such lands. 1t
is. however, usually unwise to plant
commercial orchards on land so rolling
as TO prevent rowing the trees and cul-
tivating both ways, on account Of the
added labor in cultivating and harvest
ing where the rows have to circle the
hillsides. Only high lying lands should
be selected for orchards, especially of
the stone fruits, not only on account of
the better drainage, but because of the
greater freedom from spring frost, and
u less liability to loss from rot. High
land fruit Is finer colored and more at
tractive than that grown on low lands.
A fat-topped hill with the land slop-
ing away in all directions is an ideal
location for an orchard, especially if
there is a good red clay subsoi. The
character of the top soil is not so i'm
portant. 1t may be little sandy, in
which case the fruit will be few days
earlier; but stiff red clay throughout,
with only a small amount of vegetable
matter, will give fruit OF the highest
flavor, best color and best shipping
quality. AS stated before these re-
marks do not apply to the Oriental
pears and only partially to apples.
Parts OF the mountain country of North
Alabama are admirably adapted to APP
pies, but in the central and southern
parts of the state they are little out
of their latitude, and the trees are like
iy to be short lived in dry and exposed
locations. They will be longer lived
and more fruitful in lower and mOister
lands, though in such locations the
fruit is always duller in color and more
liable to rot.-F. S. Earle. Ala. Exp.
Station.