28 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



surely this poison ascends to the lungs — the leaves — and from these to the 

 hark, and by this returned to the root to he again impregnated. With its 

 channels thus impeded is it any wonder that it casts its fruit, that its leaves 

 grow yellow, wither and fall. In all such cases, and they are numerous, there 

 is hut one fertilizer that will he efficient; that one is under-draining, deep and 

 efficient. Give those roots a chance to go as they please dry shod, sweeten up 

 the soil with a good coat of lime now and then until the wood and bark assume 

 their wonted vigor. 



It is a fact patent to every scientific horticulturist and pomologist that many, 

 very many, of the orchards in the State are losing their pristine vigor and 

 dwindling away from other causes than drowning, some by sheer neglect or 

 vile treatment, but a large l^roportion from want of proper food. When we 

 go back and view the shrub in its native jungle, shaded from the parching suns 

 of summer and the bleakness of an arctic winter, and compare that protection 

 with what it gets in our latitude after undergoing the transforming process 

 from the native crab to what it now is, is it any wonder that its susceptibilities 

 have been increased. That it demands the best of care at our hands if we 

 expect to make it a source of profit. Does it get it? How are the majority of 

 orchards treated from year to year? In most cases it is plow and crop; some- 

 times pasture, sometimes fertilize, with little regard to the quality of soil and 

 less for the kind of manure used. 



To treat an orchard successfully for growth and profit, commercial fertilizers 

 are out of the question. They would cost too much money for the doubtful 

 value there is in them, and were they as good as claimed their nature would be 

 too stimulating and short-lived. You would see its effect in the tree but not 

 in the fruit. 



To those who believe their orchards would be ruined did they not plow them 

 every year we would recommend cropping with peas in preference to any other 

 grain, using liberally of plaster, two or three hundred pounds to the acre, 

 sowed before the seed is drilled in, and in addition thereto, if obtainable, a 

 good dressing of ashes (unleached much preferable), not omitting the lye wash 

 as often as once a year, and be sure to let the hogs do the harvesting. Con- 

 tinue this treatment a few years and you will find a new vigor to the tree, a 

 brilliant complexion to the fruit, and in size aud quality you will not be dis- 

 appointed provided you keep all other crops off the ground. 



Another and a very successful way of fertilizing an orchard for apples is, as 

 soon as the trees become well established and begin to bear fruit to seed down 

 the land and mulch the trees, not by piling a little coarse stuff arouud the 

 trunk, but by covering the ground substantially as far as the limbs extend so 

 thickly that but little grass will grow. As soon as this is rotted renew the 

 mulch, pasture with hogs or sheep, the former preferable if secured against 

 rooting. We consider this the preferable way to treat the orchard, giving it 

 yearly the indispensable dressing of ashes or the lye wash. 



Treated in this way we have no complaint from the owners that their Bald- 

 wins are tinctured with bitter rot, their Spys scabby or specked, their Bell- 

 flowers and Swaars knotty and one-sided. Indeed, this method comes nearer to 

 the native habit of the trees than any other. It gives no forced stimulation to 

 the root by extra heat from a summer's sun, but keeps the soil moist, permea- 

 ble and sufficiently cool at all times, and adds value as a protection against 

 frosts in winter. One of the best orchards in this county for vigor of tree, 

 firmness of fruit aud profit to the owner has been treated in this way for twen- 

 ty-five years. It makes a place for your ashes at forty cents a bushel that you 



