Fruit-Growing Industries. 125 



These results at once raised the question whether the potash 

 or the tillage had influenced the trees. Consequently, two other 

 plots w^ere undertaken : 



Plot B. Top-dressed in June, 1896, with 750 lbs. muriate pot- 

 ash per acre, and August, 1897, with sulfate potash, 750 lbs. to 

 acre. Remains in sod. 



Plot C. Plowed and tilled, from June 1896 to 1898. No 

 fertilizer. 



Plot A was continued in tillage, and in August, 1897, sulfate 

 of potash was applied at the rate of 750 lbs. per acre. 

 In 1896, neither plot B or C showed an}^ results. 

 In 1897, Plot A still had the darkest and best foliage and 



gave a slightly better yield than the remainder of the orchard ; 



but the results were not so marked as in 1896. The apples 



were still larger and later. 



In 1898, Plot A was still best, although the differences were 



very little. The fruit on this plot still ran larger than on 



others, and the owner thought, as in other years, that it was 



coarser and less sweet. Plots B and C seemed to show no gain 



over untreated trees. 



Here, then, is an orchard, in good bearing condition, which 

 was benefited by a treatment combining tillage and application 

 of potash. Neither of these factors alone gave results. But 

 the extra vigor and 3aeld were at the expense of high color and 

 early maturity. In the McCullom orchard the extra vigor of 

 foliage, due to the nitrogen, seemed to be an unmixed blessing, 

 although it should be said that the nitrogen-fertilized apples were 

 Greenings, in which loss of color would not show. If there is 

 any lesson to be drawn from these comparisons, it is that sod 

 orchards which have been top-dressed systematically with stable 

 manures may be expected to respond less profitabh^ to remedial 

 treatments than those which have not been so treated ; but it does 

 not follow that such orchards may not have given still better 

 results if they had been both manured and tilled from the first. 

 In other words, the better the habitual care of the fruit planta- 

 tion, the less occasion the grower has to worry about it. These 

 experiments also illustrate how different the problems are in dif- 

 ferent orchards, and how necessary it is that the farmer attempt 



