One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered Part 47

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. Standing water on dormant alfalfa is not injurious.

Trees Over High-Water.

Which are the best fruit trees to plant on black adobe soil with water table between 3 and 4 feet from surface? The soil is very rich and productive. The land is leveled for alfalfa also; will the alfalfa disturb the growth of trees?

We would not plant such land to fruit at all, except a family orchard.

The fruits most likely to succeed are pears and pecans. On such land alfalfa should not hurt trees unless it is allowed to actually strangle them. The alfalfa may help the trees by pumping out some of the surplus water.

Soil Suitable for Fruits.

I am sending samples of soil in which there are apricots and prunes growing, and ask you to examine it with reference to its suitability for other fruits. Will lemons thrive in this soil?

It is not necessary to have a.n.a.lysis of the soil. If you find by experience that apricot and prune trees are doing well, it is a demonstration of its suitability for the orange, so far as soil is concerned. The same would also be a demonstration for soil suitability for the lemon because the lemon is always grown on orange root. The thing to be determined is whether the temperature conditions suit the lemon and whether you have an irrigation supply available, because citrus fruits, being evergreen, require about fifty per cent more moisture than deciduous fruits, and they are not grown successfully anywhere in this State without irrigation, except, possibly, on land with underflow. The matter to determine then is the surety of suitable temperatures and water supply.

For Blowing Soils.

I am going to dry-sow rye late this fall. I want some leguminous plant to seed with the rye for a wind-break crop, not to plow under. The land varies from heavy loam to blow-sand. I have under consideration sweet clover, burr clover, vetches. I see occasional stray plants of sweet clover (the white-blossomed) growing in the alfalfa on both hard and sandy soil. I read in an Eastern bee journal that sweet clover can be sowed on hard uncultivated land with success. Could I grow it on the hard vacant spots that occur in the alfalfa fields?

You can sow these leguminous plants all along during the earlier part of the rainy season (September to December) except that they will not make a good start in cold ground which does not seem to bother rye much. But on sand you are not likely to get cold, waterlogged soil, so you can put in there whenever you like - the earlier the better, however, if you have moisture enough in the soil to sustain the growth as well as start it. We should sow rye and common vetch. Sweet clover will grow anywhere, from a river sandbar to an uncovered upland hardpan, but it will not do much if your vacant spots are caused by alkali.

More Than Dynamite Needed.

I have some peculiar land. People here call it cement. It does not take irrigation water readily, and water will pa.s.s over it for a long time and not wet down more than an inch or so. When really wet it can be dipped up with a spoon. Hardpan is down about 24 to 36 inches. I have tried blowing up between the vines with dynamite, and see little difference. Can you suggest anything to loosen up the soil?

You could not reasonably expect dynamite to transform the character of the surface soil except as its rebelliousness might in some cases be wholly due to lack of drainage - in that case blasting the hardpan might work wonders. But you have another problem, viz: to change the physical condition of the surface soil to prevent the particles from running together and cementing. This is to be accomplished by the introduction of coa.r.s.e particles, preferably of a fibrous character. To do this the free use of rotten straw or stable manure, deeply worked into the soil, and the growth of green crops for plowing under, is a practical suggestion. Such treatment would render your soil mellow, and, in connection with blasting of the hardpan to prevent acc.u.mulation of surplus water over it, would accomplish the transformation which you desire. The cost and profit of such a course you can figure out for yourself.

Is Dynamite Needed?

I have an old prune orchard on river bottom lands; soil about 15 or 16 feet deep. Quite a number of trees have died, I presume from old age. I desire to remove them and to replace them with prune trees. I have been advised to use dynamite in preparing the soil for the planting of the new trees.

Whether you need dynamite or not depends upon the condition of the sub-soil. If you are on river flats with an alluvial soil, rather loose to a considerable depth, dynamiting is not necessary. If, by digging, you encounter hardpan, or clay, dynamiting may be very profitable. This matter must be looked into, because the failure of trees on river lands is more often due to their planting over gravel streaks, which too rapidly draw off water and cause the tree to fail for lack of moisture.

In such cases dynamite would only aggravate the trouble. Dynamiting should be done in the fall and not in the spring. The land should have a chance to settle and readjust itself by the action of the winter rains; otherwise, your trees may dry out too much next summer.

Improving Heavy Soils.

What is adobe? What kind of plants will grow best in adobe? In this Redwood City I find clay-like soil which looks very dark and heavy. What kind of plants will grow best in this soil?

The term adobe does not mean any particular kind of soil. It is applied locally to clay and clay-loam soils indiscriminately. It generally signifies the heaviest, stickiest, crackingest soil in the vicinity.

Most plants will grow well on heavy soils if they are kept from getting too dry and too full of water. This is done by using plenty of stable manure and other coa.r.s.e stuff to make the soil more friable, which favors aeration, drainage, root extension and plant thrift. Friability is also promoted by the use of lime and by good tillage. The particular soil to which you refer is a black clay loam which can be improved in all the ways stated. It is a good soil for most flowers and vegetables if handled as suggested. You can get hints of what does best by studying your neighbors' earlier plantings.

For a Reclaimed Swamp.

I have land, formerly a pond which dried up in the summer months. It has been thoroughly drained now for several years. The land surrounding it is good fertile soil and produces good crops. On this piece, however, crops come up and look fairly well until about two inches high when they turn yellow and die. Mesquite gra.s.s and strawberries seem to be the only crops that will live, and they do not do at all well. Sorrel grows abundantly in the natural state.

Apparently the reclaimed land which you speak of needs liming to overcome the acidity in the soil. Common builders' lime applied at the rate of 1000 pounds to the acre at the beginning of the rainy season ought to make the land much more productive and the soil, at the same time, more friable. Deep plowing with aeration will also help the land, and this treatment can begin at once if the soil is workable. Other additions of lime can be made later as they may be required to make the improvement permanent.

Improving Uncovered Subsoil.

What is the best treatment for spots that have been sc.r.a.ped in leveling for irrigation?

The land can be improved by plowing deeply and turning in stable manure or green alfalfa or any other vegetable matter which may decay, rendering the soil rich in humus and more friable. Of course, it will take some time to accomplish this improvement, and it is necessary that there be moisture enough present to cause the material to decay in order that the improvement may be secured.

Sand for Clay Soils.

Will beach sand do adobe or clay soil any good? It gets hard at times and I thought that if I was to put beach sand in the ground the salt in the sand would do the ground harm.