THE ORCHARD.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 878, 28 December 1888, Page 18

THE ORCHARD.

LAND TOO RICH FOR FRUIT. The general impression seems to be that land cannot be too rich for fruit. Theoretically it cannot, but practically 1 am convinced it can be. Most writers on horticultural subjects say any land that will raise good corn will be good for fruit. I never saw any land too rich for corn, but I have seen it too rich for fruit. Land may contain so much humus or plant food that a large growth of wood will be made and but a small quantity of fruit be produoed, just as land may contain so much plant food as to grow heavy straw, but yield little or no grain. There are two < r hards about one thousand trees each near Salinas, Monterey county, that show clearly that land may be too rich for fruit. The trees in these orchards are young and have made a remarkable growth of wood.

Many of them had such large, dense tops that the wind had swayed them over, and it became necessary to give them a somewhat severe pruning last winter, having been neglected in this respect for some time. No ploughing was done in one of these orchards, the ground being merely cultivated and no crop was planted. The other orchard was ploughed very shallow, and not very near the trees, and some corn, beans and pumpkins planted. On visiting these orchards recently I was amazed to see the wonderful growth of wood the trees had made and the small amount of fruit there was. From the number of fruit buds left at the time of pruning, there should have been all the fruit the .trees ought to carry, but in neither orchard will there be 100 boxes of fruit, whereas there should be 1,000. . Now, the trees having made such a remarkable growth of wood at top, must of course have remarkably vigorous and widespreading roots. As the roots were not pruned or broken any by the plough, as they should have been, all their strength was left to renew the branohes out off at the time of pruning, and most faithfully have they used this vitality to grow enormous tops to the trees. Then the rank growth of weeds, up to one’s hips, is another evidence of the superabundance of plant food in the soil. Here in the foothills, where there is less humus and more mineral substances in the soil, our trees are loaded down with fruit, even to breaking down of many limbs. Evidently the remedy in such cases is to root prune, by ploughing, as well as top pruning, exhausting the excess of humus by cropping the ground with some root or vine crop, and by a liberal application of lime and ashes. I am confident now that the reason, of the failure of'the orchard to produce fruit on another ranch whioh I knew of in Yolo county was the same as mentioned above.—J. S. Tibbits, In Pacifio Rural Press.