1907 was $113,966 or $1,370 per
year. Of this income $8,877 were obtained from a ten-acre apple orchard.]

There will still remain the question of the present condition of the
land. For example, the Pennsylvania station obtained in a certain
season 42 loads of hay from nine acres of land. The same season, from
exactly the same soil type, the station obtained eight loads of hay
from 20 acres. The condition of the soil was different, which the
previous history of the two tracts of land fully explains.

It is of the utmost importance, therefore, to distinguish between the
natural fertility of the soil and the condition of the soil. A further
example will help to illustrate this point. At the Rothamsted Station
a certain type of soil has for over 60 years produced annually about
12 bushels of wheat an acre without fertilizer, while with a complete
fertilizer the same type has produced 30 or more bushels. The 12
bushels may be said to represent the natural fertility of the soil,
while the additional 18 bushels may be said to represent the condition
of the soil due to fertilizers or to other conditions. On the other
hand, the natural condition of some other soil type might be only
eight bushels, or still another type might be 16 bushels.

This principle is of considerable practical importance, especially in
the eastern third of the United States. Generally speaking, clay and
silt soils have a greater natural fertility than sandy soils;
limestone soils than those that are deficient in lime. Thus soils that
naturally grow chestnut trees, indicating a low lime content, have a
tendency to deteriorate under exhaustive cropping much more rapidly
than limestone soils. More fertilizers and other methods of soil
improvement are necessary in the case of chestnut soils than in the
case of limestone valley soils. One of the first questions to ask,
therefore, concerning an unknown farm in Pennsylvania is whether or
not chestnut trees grow naturally. It does not follow, however, that
chestnut soils are undesirable. Much will depend upon the crop or
crops it is desired to raise. For example, in some regions they are
well adapted to potatoes and peaches. In these cases the cost of the
fertilizers necessary to keep the soil in proper condition is small
compared with the total return from the crop.

The pioneer's best guide as to the value of new land was and is the
vegetation growing upon it, and, especially in a wooded country, the
nativ