Yerington times. [volume] (Yerington, Nev.) 1907-1932, 1912-09-07
SOIL MOISTURE is REQUIRED.
To Grow Good Crops Much Water is
Needed to Maintain FERTILITY.

Tillage gives such measures of AGRA
ton of the soil as to develop plant
food. Chemical action liberates plant
food by dissolving the inorganic elc
ments and forming solutions contain
ing plant food, writes E. f. Stephen,
in the Denver Field and Farm. The
more complete the aeration the
stronger the solution of plant foo |
contained in the soil moisture. We ali
know that the larger the amount Of
plant food available the less soil
moisture is required to produce d
pound OF dry matter. In other words,
a tree can grow and bear fruit in a
well aerated soil with less moistur..
than is required to produce the same
results with the tree feeding on soil
less effectively cultivated
Aeration, therefore, sets free 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
Cruel The average planter will, per
baps, irrigate his orchard three of four
times in a season. Each irrigation j
preceded by running a corrugator or
some other method of opening fur.
rows This requires team once over.
after men have been employed to
spread the water Within forty-eight
hours some efficient implement must
be run to get the soil under cultiva
ton or the land will crust, bake, crack
open and soon be in worse condition
than before.
To get the soil back into as good
state OF tillage as before the watering.
we find ourselves compelled 10 cover
II two or three times, usually once
with the Planet Junior and then eacn
way with some implement like the
Acme pulverizer or the Tower cultiva.
tor Three, and possibly four, team
operations will be needed with each
irrigation to recover the loose, lively.
mellow soil condition in which we h:,i
the soil before watering, therefore.
three periods OF irrigation will mean
covering the field nine times with a
team. In our experience add these
nine civilizations to seven to min. reg
ular civilizations and we have sixteen
to eighteen civilizations. which follow
ing winter and spring rainfall such
as we have had this season viii! in suit.
able soil go long way towards con
serving moisture for the summer.
There seems to be no question that
a tree that is efficiently and thorough
" cultivated finds more favorable con
ditions for vigorous growth and early
sometimes too wet, sometimes too
dry. and handled in the manner Oft
times 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 aged sixteen to twenty
years needs probably seven to eight
times as much soil moisture as does
the one up to an age of five years.
To maintain soil 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 require several inches
OF water. 1t is hardly practicable to
maintain the same high state of till
age in the old orchard that can be
given in the young one and water
must either be stored in the subsoil or
applied at suitable times by sufficient
irrigation to maintain an ample sup
Fly of moisture in the aged bearing
orchard.
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