STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. II5 



GROWTH AND NUTRITION OF THE APPLE TREE. 



Dr. W. J. Morse, Orono. 



What I shall say with regard to the growth and nutrition of 

 the apple tree will probably contain little which is new to. those 

 orchardists who have thoroughly studied the subject. However, 

 my observations of the way that apple orchards are usually 

 handled, in several different states, frequently by men of con- 

 siderable experience, leads me to believe that there is much need 

 of a more intimate acquaintance with certain fundamental prin- 

 ciples of plant nutrition and their application to orchard prac- 

 tices, 



A man who would hitch a cow in a wooden stanchion and' 

 then pile her rations on her back because they would thus be 

 nearer her stomach would be considered a fit candidate for a 

 lunatic asylum. If he should then give a flock of sheep the 

 free range of the stable, even though he placed the fodder in 

 reach of the cows, and expect the sheep to get their living 

 upon the same food supply and the cows to remain in good 

 condition and give a full flow of milk we would place him in 

 the (incurable ward. Yet he differs but little from the man who 

 places his fertilizer only around the bases of the tree trunks 

 or from the man who expects his trees to grow strong and 

 vigorous and produce an abundance of large apples, and at the 

 same time is not satisfied unless he yearly secures a full crop 

 of hay from these same orchards. In the first instance he 

 should not be too severely censured. He shows an honest de- 

 sire to give the tree something in return for what it gives him 

 and is placing this food material where he thinks it is most 

 needed, therefore the comparison is to a certain extent unfair. 

 It does not take a very bright man to discover the business end 

 of a hungry animal but to the uninitiated it is not so easy to 

 locate the millions of tiny feeding organs of a hungry plant. 

 On the other hand I maintain that the man who expects his 



