The Cultivation of Orchards. 305 



The bone fertilizers are always valuable. Those which are 

 untreated give up their phosphoric acid slowly, unless they are 

 very finely ground. Dissolved bone gives more immediate results. 

 Thomas or basic slag, which is yet scarcely in the market in this 

 country, has given good results in many tests, but it parts with 

 its fertility very slowly. It is yet too early to recommend this 

 material for orchards with full confidence. 



In general, phosphoric acid is rather less important in fruit 

 plantations than potash, although this order is reversed in general 

 farming. Potash should undoubtedly be the leading factor in 

 orchard fertilizers, and nitrogen, as I have said, may be 

 obtained mostly 'by means of tillage and green crops. It will 

 then be seen that the use of combined or ' ' complete' ' commercial 

 fertilizers may not be economical. The best results are to be 

 expected when the fruit-grower observes closely the behavior of 

 his trees and then applies such materials as they appear to need. 

 Any of the materials mentioned in the foregoing remarks may be 

 mixed together, so that the phosphorus and potas.sium can be 

 applied at the same sowing. It should be said, however, that if 

 wood ashes is mixed with a nitrogenous fertilizer, some loss of 

 nitrogen may ensue, unless the material is used at once. 



Cover crops and green-manuring. — A sowed crop in the orchard 

 may be valuable in two ways : by affording a cover to the land, 

 and by improving the soil when it is plowed in. As a cover, it 

 may keep down weeds, and protect the land from injurious effects 

 of frost. As a green manure, it may add fibre to the soil and thus 

 augment its power of holding fertility and moisture, and it may 

 add directly to the fertility of the land. This late crop catches 

 and holds the leaching nitrates which the tree-roots utilize earlier 

 in the season. 



As a rule, crops grown for cover alone should be sown not 

 earlier than midsummer. The most thorough tillage can then be 

 given early in the season, and the benefits of the cover can be 

 secured for the early fall and winter. It is generally advisable to 

 grow a crop which answers for both a cover and green manure, 

 although it is easily possible to make the soil too nitrogenous for 

 some fruits by the extravagant use of such fertilizer. 



There is much confusion in the popular mind concerning the 



