If such a soil should be selected for fruit
trees at all, the breaking through the hardpan by dynamite or otherwise
is desirable, and irrigation will be, probably, indispensable.
Depth of Cultivation.
I would be glad to know whether in cultivating an orchard a light-draft
harrow could profitably be used, which cultivates three and a half
inches deep? I have used another cultivator, and try to have it go at
least seven inches.
A depth of 3 1-2 inches is not satisfactory in orchard cultivation,
although there may be some condition under which greater depth would be
difficult to obtain because of root injury to trees, which have been
encouraged to root near the surface. Both experience and actual
determinations of moisture in this State show that cultivation to a
depth of 5 inches conserves twice as much moisture in the lower soil as
can be saved by a 3-inch depth of cultivation under similar soil
conditions and water supply. It is all the better to go 7 inches if
young trees have been treated that way from the beginning.
Alfalfa Over Hardpan.
I have land graded for alfalfa and some of the checks are low and water
will stand on the low checks in the winter. There is on an average from
two to three feet of soil on top of hardpan and hardpan is about two
feet thick. Will water drain off the low checks if the hardpan is
dynamited, and will this land grow alfalfa with profit?
Yes; much of the hardpan in your district is thin enough and underlaid
by permeable strata so that drainage is readily secured by breaking up
the hardpan.
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