58 Agricultural Experiment Station^ Ithaca, N. Y. 



heaps, whicli no amount of good intentions can correct. But, if 

 possible, these old orchards must be trimmed up to admit of culti- 

 vation. Swine can sometimes be utilized as plows in such orchards. 

 With a crowbar make holes three or four inches deep all through 

 the orchard and di'op a handful of corn or buckwheat in each hole. 

 Let the hogs root for it ! 



As to fertilizers for the apple orchards, little can be said within 

 the limits of this paper. In orchards which have been well tilled 

 from the first, there will seldom be anj need to add much, if any, 

 commercial nitrogen. If the trees apparently need it, a suthcient 

 supply may usually be had from the use of crimson clover (see 

 Bulletin 72). Potash is considered to be the dominant factor in 

 fruit production ; this aud phosphoric acid should be added each, 

 year. In using concentrated fertilizers, the grower should bear in 

 mind that his object is to feed the plant, not to fertilize the soil. 

 That is, it is better to add each year about as much as the plant 

 may be supposed to need, rather than to occasionally apply a sur- 

 plus with the idea that it will be of use in future years. It is true 

 that the best effect of fertilizers may appear in the second or even 

 in the third year after application, but this does not affect the 

 proposition. It is also true that potash and phosphoric acid do not 

 escape from the soil, as nitrogen does ; but any superfluous amount 

 is likely to become more or less mechanically locked up in clods of 

 earth, and it may be shifted by the movements of soil water. And 

 there are some plants, at least, which take up more phosphoric acid 

 than they need, when this material is applied in redundant amounts. 

 At all events, if I had more commercial fertilizer than the trees 

 would evidently need, I should rather have it in the barn than in 

 the ground. 



But the immediate cause of most of our apple failures of the 

 last few years, is undoubtedly the apple-scab fungus. In the first 

 place, it should be said, however, that only a small part of the 

 flowers, when the bloom is full, should be expected to set fruit- 

 Apple flowers are borne in clusters of six to twelve, but the apples 

 are usually borne singly. These superfluous flowers undoubtedly 

 furnish pollen for the ones that set. The picture shows the nor- 

 mal blasting of the flowers. This cluster had seven flowers, and 

 six of them are now withered and dead, whilst the seventh has 



