STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. II7 



me, but we have the facts for New York, and you have the 

 same facts over here at Durham, N H., in large measure, and 

 it will pay you to leave a few check trees in your apple orchard, 

 if you are using fertilizers, and see what the difference is 

 between the check trees and those you fertilize. Another point 

 must be made. We have found that trees in sod will respond 

 to fertilizer, whereas those that are cultivated will not. I have 

 never seen it fail that an application of nitrate of soda to trees 

 in sod would not produce results, and acid phosphate often pro- 

 duces results when they are in sod. 



Mr. Morse : The Professor perhaps does not realize the 

 difference between the cost of cultivating a soil like his and 

 some of our best orchard soils up here. He says that we have 

 no idea of the way the roots spread out, unless we have tried it. 

 He has no idea how an apple tree would look down here, unless 

 it is thoroughly cultivated or fertilized. I know just how 

 they look, and after they have been fertilized, and I think that 

 on a good share of our best orchard land it is cheaper for us to 

 buy fertilizer and grow them that way than it is to give them 

 thorough cultivation. 



Prof. Hedrick : Do you know whether it is potash, nitrogen 

 or acid phosphate that does the business ? 



Mr. Morse: I don't. 



Prof. Hedrick : Are you sure it is not the nitrogen they 

 want more than anything else. Don't you think stable manure 

 with very little acid phosphate would give the results — if you 

 should mulch them with stable manure, or plow under clover 

 or vetch, wouldn't you get the same results. 



Mr. Morse: If you should get a soil good enough for clover, 

 it will bear a good tree, but you don't realize that a good deal 

 of our best orchard land won't bear clover. Your conditions 

 are so different from ours that we must take your advice with 

 a good deal of care or we should get mixed up terribly. 



Prof. Hedrick : I realize that is true, and I realize that I 

 ought not, coming here, to say much about fertilizer. But the 

 question was on potash. I got into this discussion to bring out 

 the point that I think it is nitrogen that your trees need, if you 

 can get it — stable manure — vetch and clover plowed in, if you 

 can get it. I may be wrong. I have had no experience in Maine. 

 I may be altogether wrong, although I am banking a little on 



