The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-06-15

ana DdCh U du petIIo VI tuS pilhe VIII
soon be exhausted unless we can sup
ply it by artificial means. Cloudless
skies and irrigation combined will
push vegetation of all kinds with a
rapidity nowhere else to be found.
Here is the value of irrigation and
here is to be found an explanation OF
the enormous size of fruits and yields
of irrigated orchards and the high
color and quality of the fruit from the
irrigated sections of our great coun-
try.
If the moisture in non-irrigated or
chards can be conserved by the meth
DDS before mentioned, then the rich
quality and color of fruit can be main
tanned. Without this care in moisture
conservation, the supply of water may
fail at a very critical time in the au-
tumn. The advantage of irrigation is
not in the manner in which the water
comes to the tree roots, but rather in
the fact that the grower controls the
situation and can supply the moisture
when it is needed. For this reason
irrigated orchards will always have the
advantage not easily secured by the
non-irrigated orchards.
Another question intimately con-
nected with what has just been con-
sidered is, "Will the fertility of this
light-colored, volcanic ash soil re-
main?" To properly answer this ques-
ton we must remember that the fert1l
ity of no soil will remain the same II
the plants we grow are constantly u.s.
ing up fertility and none is returned
A COW tied to a stake will eat all the
grass she can reach and then starve
unless food is placed where she can
get it. A tree will ultimately use UP
all, or nearly all, the fertility within
it's reach and then suffer. But this is
Just as true in the black soils or the
Mississippi Valley as it is OF the light
colored soils of the Northwest.
There are ten or eleven elements OF
fertility that are indispensable to tree
growth. They are carbon, hydrogen
oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus
potassium, magnesium, calcium, and
| iron: possibly to this list chlorine
should be added. These elements OIL
| fertility are abundant and inexhaust
| ib,e except nitrogen, phosphorus, pc
tassium potash), and in some cases
calcium Qime). Some of our best SOL
chemists claim that there is enough
potash and phosphorus to last, IN rals
ing ordinary crops, for 1000 years. Ii
these two elements should become ex
hausted, they can easily and cheaply
be restored by the use of commercial
fertilizers.
The one thing most easily used VI
and the most costly to restore is nitro
1t in6iCnnnGQhI4
ment of fertility can be restored ny
growing legumes, such as peas, Deans
vetches. clover, trefoil, and alfalla IL
orr orchards. Nearly four-fifths OF the
air is nitrogen, but it is not In the
soluble condition, and hence cannot DC
used by growing plants. These legu
minous plants have the power, assisted
nv certain forms of bacteria working
on the roots, of taking this free nitro
gen of The air which is so abundant
and Transforming it into the soluble
form. In this way we can restore the
nitrogen used up to our SOILS Wltnou'
cost. This is a far better way to keeI
I'D and increase the nitrogen content OF
our soils than to buy nitrate OF SOFA
(Chile salpetre), which is expensive
The writer is now carrying on In MS
orchards experiments for the Depart
ment of Agriculture, Washington, d
c., to determine what legumes are pes'
adapted to this restoration OF nitrogen
in the orchards of the PACING Nortn
west. He is growing fourteen dlf
erent kinds of legumes in his orchards
from seed furnished by the Govern
ment. and reporting the success ano
failures. These results will finally be
published in bulletin by the agros