One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture AnsweredWickson, Edward J. (Edward James)
Science
One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered
Wickson, Edward J. (Edward James)
Agriculture -- California
Your local advisers are probably right as to the necessity for
summer-fallowing in order to conserve moisture from a previous year's
rainfall and to get the land otherwise into good condition. There might
be such a generous rainfall that an excellent crop might come without
summer-fallowing, and the results will depend upon the rainfall. If it
should be small in amount, you might not recover your seed. By the same
sign you might not get much growth on your fruit trees, but you could
help them by constant cultivation and by using the water-wagon if the
season should be very dry. Therefore, you are likely to do better with
trees than with grain without summer-fallowing, although even for trees
it is a decided advantage to have more moisture stored in the subsoil
and the surface soil pulverized by more tillage.
Defects in Soil Moisture.
I have apricot trees that appear to be almost dead; all but a very few
small green leaves are gone, and they look bad, still I think they might
be saved if I only knew what to do.
Presumably your apricot tree is suffering from too much standing water
during the dormant season, or from a lack of water during the dry
season. The remedy would be to correct moisture conditions, either by
underdrainage for winter excess or by irrigation for summer deficiency.
When a tree gets into a position such as you describe, it should be cut
back freely and irrigation supplied, if the soil is dry, in the house
that the roots may be able to restore themselves and promote a new
growth in the top.
Dry Plowing for Soil and Weed Growth.
Is there any scientific reason to support the belief that it is
injurious to the soil to dry-plow it for seeding to grain this fall and
winter? Will dry-plowing now cause a worse growth of filth after the
rains than the customary fallowing in the spring? Should the stubble be
burned, or plowed under!
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