AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF NURSERYMEN. 299 



year we may sow that ground witli barley or oats, and the crop won't come 

 high enough for the reaper to catch it. Yoti must have vegetable mold in 

 the soil, and, in my opinion, in the west it is the chief fertilizer. I will say 

 a word more on commercial fertilizers, and then I will keep still for a long 

 time. If I were going to sow a commercial fertilizer in the west, I would 

 sow ashes ; I believe we would get more benefit out of it than anything else ; 

 we are far from the ocean, but ocean salt can be advantageously used on all 

 small fruits, and we all know that ashes can be used with good effect on 

 farm crops, strawberries, raspberries, and orchards of all kinds. 



Mr. Watson of Illinois: We tried salt in Bloomiugton five years ago; 

 we began by piitting on five bushels to the acre, then ten. fifteeen, twenty, 

 and twenty-five, and I do not think that we could see that our stock was 

 any stronger, or the land any better. 



Mr. Kruschke of Ohio: I think one of the best and cheapest fertilizers 

 that we can get for our soils is rye, when it comes to the head and is 

 plowed under; I have used that for a number of years with the best 

 results. 



Mr. RowE of Wisconsin: I will simply remark, in confirmation of what 

 our fi'iend from Alabama has said, that from observations made in southern 

 California, in the great orange ranches, they are already compelled to use 

 commercial fertilizers, and with marked success. At Riverside, at Colton, 

 and other points, they are using commercial fertilizers with success; and 

 so far as plowing in green crops is concerned, and the use of them, there 

 is no question but the alfalfa, in its various uses, takes the lead in Cali- 

 fornia; it is doing in California what clover is doing for us. 



Mr. Maywood of New York: I will say that we have repeatedly brought 

 up poor pieces of ground by sowing rye, and about the first of June, just 

 before it headed, turning it under, then sowing corn and turning that 

 under, and the next year we could grow almost anything in that land. 



Mr. Green: I have thought that we were behind the times in not using 

 more commercial fertilizers. Farmers are using them all over the country, 

 and they know they are a help; they can see that it helps corn and wheat 

 and barley and oats; they must know whether it pays to use it. New 

 Jersey gardeners laugh at you if you ask them whether it pays or not. 

 They say, we know it pays, and they think it the queerest thing in the 

 world that we do not use them ; they apply anywhere from 500 pounds to a 

 ton to the acre, and I do really believe that we as nurserymen are behind 

 the times in not using these commercial fertilizers where we can not get 

 enough yard manure. 



Mr. Webster: In regard to green crops, we are using clover; and the 

 next good thing, I claim, is salt. I have used that successfully for eight 

 or ten years. We get our commercial fertilizers from the stock yards in 

 twenty-ton cars. 



Mr. Fox: I fear a good many of our men expect to get a fertilizer for 

 about six dollars per ton. I have been in that business and I find it takes 

 money, but when we want to get anything valuable you must give $35 to 

 860 per ton and you get a good article. 



President Sweet: We will call on Mr. C. J. Carpenter of Fairbury, 

 Neb., to respond to the question, "What has been learned by recent 

 experience about planting and growing forest trees?" 



We have learned, in growing forest trees, that the soil should we thoroughly pulver- 

 ized to the depth of at least twelve inches. Also that none but sandy or loam soil cat. 



