44 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



Question: Yes, but that is an enormous amount. Mow did 

 you go to work to apply so much ? 



Prof. Blair : We find lots of fruitgrowers in our section who 

 will take two or three handfuls of fertilizer and scatter it 

 around the young trees. They do not realize what a quantity 

 they are putting on. One ounce of fertilizer to a square yard is 

 equal to 300 pounds per acre, so when you take a handful of 

 fertilizer, you are not applying it at 300 lbs. per acre, but usually 

 at the rate of 1500 to 2000, in some cases 3000 lbs. per acre. 

 W hat I was getting at in connection with this problem was to 

 tind out whether an injury did result from this application, and 

 whether that was a waste of material or not. The results would 

 seem to indicate that in the planting of young trees, if you have 

 conditions right for the tree other than plant food, you need not 

 necessarily pay very much attention to the plant food require- 

 ments. 



Question: About how many pounds of fertilizer would that 

 mean on an actual acre of orchard? 



Prof. Blair : At the rate of 2,000 pounds per acre the quantity 

 of fertilizer actually applied by the acre of orchard would not be 

 very great. In the planting of young trees we will assume 40 

 trees to the acre, each to occupy one square yard, and one ounce 

 to each tree represents at the rate of 300 pounds per acre, or 40 

 ounces on the acre which would not be a very big expense ; but 

 it is not so much a case of saving, it is the energy used in putting 

 that fertilizer there and whether there is any benefit derived 

 from it, and whether 1-2 lb. to the tree or at the rate of 2400 

 pounds per acre wiJl do more injury than it will good. 



BEE KEEPING AND ITS RELATION TO FRUIT 



GROWING. 



O. B. Griffin, Caribou, Maine. 



It is not my purpose at this time to deliver an address which 

 may be considered the last words on the subject, or to go into 

 the technical side of the question in a way that, perhaps, neither 

 you nor I would fully understand, nor shall I attempt to go into 

 details in fruit culture as there would hardlv be sufficient time to 



