Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1912-05-03

&c" PelsOliS FedIiZe the QepCn OF tree
root expansion. In one of the Farm
ers' Bulletins" issued by the U. S. De-
partment of Agriculture, is shown a
view of cross section of orchard land
which indicates a penetration of the
roots to depth of q feet. This is
natural growth. Under normal condi-
tons healthy tree will seek its food
in this way; but suppose a layer of
hardpan is encountered at depth of
five or six feet? The roots must then
spread out laterally for twenty feet or
more. The result of this unnatural
sidewise growth is that each tree in the
orchard is compelled to go over into the
feeding supply of it's neighbor and con-
sequently does not receive the neces-
sary amount of plant food to properly
nurture it and allow of its rapid growth.
Its yield of fruit is also lessened by
this forced encroaching of one tree on
the feeding ground of it's neighbor.
Then, too, brief dry spell exhausts all
the moisture from the thin feeding
ground of such tree, stopping its
growth or killing it.
Dynamite blasting proves simple
and effective remedy for this condition.
The blast breaks up the hardpan and
permits the roots to teke their natural
downward course into the lower strata
of soil in which plenty of plant food
al nrn 70 ,lol
conditions, one tree is not interfered
with by another; each one receives the
benefit of all of the soil allotted to it
at the time the surface was measured
and laid out at planting time.
1t must not be assumed from the
above that dynamite blasting is bene-
fetal only when the top soil is underaid
with hardpan. 1t is of the utmost inn
portance to assist tree, especially a
young one, to send its roots out into its
feeding bed as easily and rapidly as
possible. The more porous and loose
the soil, the more rapid will be the
growth, even in the loamy soils.
The main object to be sought in tree
planting is to so prepare the ground
that the growing tree can absorb as
large percentage of moisture as pos
sible from the soil which it occupies.
Loosening and aerating the soil accom-.
plishes this purpose. A Cornell uni
versity authority advises that a tree
planted in soil properly prepared can
absorb 60 per cent of the moisture con-
tanned in it.
Over large portion of our country
a hardpan, shale or tight clay lays near
the surface. 1t is a menace to the pro-
ductiveness of trees and all vegetables
which root deeply The scientific prin-
ciple involved is the inability of snch a
sub-soil to absorb, retain and give back
to growing essential moisture. On such
land, the water soaking through thin
top soil fails to penetrate and finds a
second drainage on this sub-surface,
draining off in "wet weather springs"
or standing in surface suspense as
"bogs." Land in this physical condition
fails of an agricultural dividend. Put
in proper physical condition this same
land becomes highly profitable. The
way to proceed is by using dynamite.
Probably no process of blowing known
to agriculture can produce the good re-
suits in breaking up tight sub-soil as
does this blasting with dynamite.
Planters of clover and alfalfa know
this by experiment. Orchardists have
come to accept it as final. The writer
has observed those conditions as he has
travelled over these three counties,
namely: Clearwater, Lewis and Idaho
| counties. This new-found process is
the foundation of new era in agricult-
ure and horticulture. 1t is the horti-
cultural application that this article
aims to emphasize. At the present
time many thousands of trees are being
set in young orchards all over the above
named counties. Such boom in apple
planting was never before known. 1t
is logical answer to an unsupplied de-
mand. The question is, will these
orchards endure-will they pay? The
answer rests largely with the mode of
setting.
In orchard setting, the use of dyna-
mite is advised in practically all soils.
1t is imperative that we dynamite as
an artificial means of conserving the
moisture. Unlike all other fruit, the
apple grows on the end of a twig of
new wood, a twig which bears to more.
The apple being bi-annual, sets its
fruit bud for the next year during July
and August of this year. So we see
this hard condition imposed: A winter
apple must make its new growth of
wood, hold its foliage, mature it's pres
ent crop of fruit, and, if it is to produce
again next year, the little tender twig
bearing an apple must mature a new
fruit spur or twig along side of it to
bring forth a healthy fruit bud next
year, and all this during a long hot
summer or autumn. The demand for
moisture is enormous. So much said
for the young trees and tLees hearino,