CHE REFERENCE LIBRARY - Pole Shift Survival Information

CERTAl,V ELEMENTS IN NURSERY PRACTICE 177
The best nursery lands contain a basis of clay, and these are
the kinds that soonest sufl’er under unwise treatment. The
land is kept under high culture, and it is therefore deeply pulverix4.
There is practically no herbagc: to protect it in
winter. When the crop is removed, eveu the roots are taken
out uf the soil. The tree-lifter or digger i,j likely to be used
when the laud is wet and easily injured. For four or five
years, the la11d reG-es practically no herbage that can rot and
pass i alto lmrnus. The trees are dug ii1 the fail, often when
the soil is ill unfit CY>!!i!itlGii, auci this fall digging amounts to
a fall plowirlg. The soil, deeply broken a& robbed of its humus,
rul:s together and cements itself before the following summer ;
ill it then rk+rcs three or four years of “rest” in clover or
otlwr herbage crop to bring it back to its rightful condition.
This resting period allows nature to replace the fiber in the soil,
and to make it onc’e more SO open and warm and kindly that
plants caii find a congenial root-hold.
It ~~oulc~ seem, therefore, that some of this mechanical injury
tcl nursery lands should be prevented by the growing of covercrvps
bt’twetiu thy rows late> ill the swsm, to be plowed under
the following spring. It is \!xhll kiiO~Vl1 that. the plowing-in
of course inamir~* l)thtxeen tllt3 trtics ill fall or spring, for tG0 or
tl1Iw JFW!Y, will somc+mes so greatly irnpro~*e the land that a
sel~oiid go~cl strop of trees ~‘a11 1x2 grown with ease. This is
particArly true for pluiii trtw, as already nuted, but the
results do not seem to be so well marked for pea,rs and some
other trtltx it is pr~~l~;tl~le that one reason for the very general
refusal of pear tretbs to follow pear trees is the fact that they
are liicel,v ttr 1~ grt~~ on llrwv,v c4ay, and this is just the land
rnwt iujur4 1,?, ~~urs~r~~ practices. Some lands are naturally
50 lwsit’ i111(1 opi~l it1 str~icturt~ tht tmw or three crops of trees
(~1 bth grow11 it1 suc(~tAoll but thcbsc la~lds contairl little crude
VlU)J ant1 tht~rt&rc~ do tlot suf-l’er quickly from the passing cut
Of the
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