APPLE CULTURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1856, 17 June 1887, Page 8

APPLE CULTURE.

A great deal depends upon the soil and exposure, as also on the planting, after culture and varieties chosen to make a successful orchard. A good streng deep clay loam is no doubt the best, as the roots can go deep, deriving moisture and sustenance from below, which if properly underdrained with a little manure from time to time will make a permanent orchard. A gravelly soil with gravelly subsoil 4s probably the next best, and if kept rich with surface manuring will give finer fruit than any other, requiring no draining. A sandy loam is also good, but it is sometimes accompanied with a hard-pan subsoil, than which nothing can be worse, preventing the roots from growing down, while in winter and late in spring it is saturated with water which cannot well get away, as underdrains only draw for a short distance in in such subsoil. Perhaps by making a good deep underdrain along where the rows of trees are to stand they might succeed. A sandy soil is in general too poor, but when deep with a good subsoil it bears a good healthy orchard. A wet peaty soil, or where the water stands in winter, is totally unfit, unless thoroughly drained and liberally supplied with lime, or ashes to correob the acidity of the soil. A shallow soil is also bad as the roots instead of growing downwards, creep along near the surface, exposed to all the vicissitudes of great cold in winter and heat in summer. If it is necessary to plant in such soils it should be done on the surface, or a very shallow hole dug and the earth raised in a mound around the tree, which should be well staked till the tree fairly takes root. But in all soils a topdressing of manure or wood ashes should be applied every year or two — the poorer the soil the oftener the application ; unleacbed wood ashes is one of the very best fertilisers »- for all kinds of fruit trees, leached ashes will also be beneficial, but a much larger quantity is required.