ker from September, the end of
the mulberry season, until March, for the persimmon has a habit of
dropping its fruit through the long winter period. The oak whose acorns
probably made the pig what he is, is almost neglected in America; yet
for ages the Indians of the Pacific coast have made their bread from
acorns of two species of oak, one of which is now gathered by the
farmers of California, put into their barns and bought and sold as
stock food. The beechnut and the hickory nut are rich and much prized
swine food.

Legumes, of which there are many species, can be grown between
nut-yielding trees to maintain the fertility of the soil through the
nitrogen gathering nodules upon their roots.

As it often seems desirable to cultivate trees of this character where
possible, the tree crops agriculturist is above all others able to
adjust his crop and the one device that permits the tillage of hilly
land--terracing. Terraces interfere with machinery which is so
increasingly essential in the cultivation and harvesting of the present
crops. But terracing interferes least of all with the tree crop
agriculture, because the trees can stand in the terrace rows and make a
fortunate combination of the heavy yielding tree crops and the soil
preservation through terracing.

We have an interesting example of tree crop productivity in Hawaii,
where the agaroba was introduced from Peru in the last century. It has
now spread until it covers considerable area with forests, and
information from the Hawaiian Experiment Station is to the effect that
it is now the mainstay of the dairy industry of the island. The annual
crop of four tons of big beans to the acre can be and is ground into a
highly nutritious meal food selling at $25 a ton, an agriculture which,
for ease of operation and richness of return, puts Illinois to shame,
for, in addition to the $100 worth of animal food, there is a ton of
wood per acre every year.

The tree crop agriculture seems to hold the possibility of letting the
worst third of our soil (Class 1 as mentioned above) become as
productive as the best land (Class 3), while (Class 2) the hill land can
probably be doubled in productivity. This is a goal well worthy of much
endeavor on the part of the plant breeder.

Tree crops offer equal possibilities for the arid land. The grains with
their period of crisis are an uncertain dependence on land of such
uncertain rainfall as exists in the United States west of th