STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 6 1 



Phosphates are next in importance to nitrogen here, as indi- 

 cated by the 9-bushel average deficit that occurs on plat 3 as 

 compared with No. 6, when phosphorus is omitted in the 

 former, and also by the high yields in plat 2. Manure, as a 

 result of the extra large crop of 1912, when most of the other 

 plats were having an off season, is now in the lead in this 

 experiment, with the excellent average yield of 541 bushels 

 per acre annually for the past five years, notwithstanding the 

 frost injury of 1913. This gives an annual gain over the 

 check of 370 bushels per acre, which is a very satisfactory 

 exchange for 12 tons of manure. This benefit from manure i? 

 also largely due to its nitrogen content, the proof of which 

 becomes more evident later. 



Time Required for Results to Appear. — It is a common im- 

 pression that long periods are required to determine the value 

 and kind of fertilizer needed for an orchard. It will be noted 

 here and in the following experiment, however, that both these 

 facts were thoroughly evident in the season immediately fol- 

 lowing the one in which the fertilizers were first applied. In 

 other words, both the value of fertilization and the kind of fer- 

 tilizer needed were clearly evident in these two cases within 

 but little more than a single year after the first application, 

 and the general conclusions formulated then have not b-:^'-'! 

 materially changed by the results of the 4 or 5 additional years 

 that we now have. In all other cases, except one, also, where 

 these facts did not appear in the first two or three seasons oi 

 bearing, they have not appeared in the results of the six or 

 seven years that are now available. This is of special im- 

 portance in connection with the local tests recommended later, 

 though in them we advise at least 3 years of trial, for the 

 sake of greater safety and greater stability in the resulting 

 conclusions. 



The one exception made above has been in the Myrard 

 orchard, which did not show any special benefits from fertili- 

 zation until the sixth year, chiefly because it was already 

 being limited by a shortage in moisture. 



Results from the Brown Orchard. 



This experiment is located in Bedford county on DeKalb 

 stony loam, — a residual, foot-hill soil chiefly of sandstone ori- 



