530 Report of the Department of Horticulture of the 



Tilled plat. — The following is the record of the treatment of the 

 tilled area: 



1909. — Plat plowed April 11-13; rolled and dragged April 1G; 

 harrowed May 27-28, June 9, June 25, July 9, July 21. On July 28 

 clover was sown and covered with a weeder. 



1910.— Plowed and fitted May 27-31; harrowed June 17-18, 

 July 2, July 12, July 25. Clover was sown July 28 and covered 

 with a weeder. The following day it was rolled down. 



1911. — Plowed and fitted April 30-31; harrowed June 1, June 16, 

 June 2G, July 4, July 12, July 21-24. Mammoth clover seed was 

 sown on July 24 and dragged in. 



1912.— Plowed May 18; harrowed June 11, June 25, July 4, 

 July 13, July 23. A cover-crop of " medium " red clover was sown 

 and dragged in July 25. 



1913. — Plowed and harrowed May 5-9; harrowed May 21-24, 

 June 11, July 11, July 25. On July 26 oats were sown as a cover- 

 crop and dragged in. 



FERTILIZERS. 



Applications of fertilizers were quite incidental to the main purpose 

 of this experiment but their use turned out to be an episode of con- 

 siderable importance. Fruit-growers who have followed the fer- 

 tilizer experiments in New York will remember that in this State 

 there is little direct evidence to show that trees profit from potassium 

 or phosphorus applied as commercial fertilizers. In fact, in the 

 orchards of this Station fertilizers containing these two elements 

 were thrown away in one experiment with old trees for twelve years l 

 and in another for fifteen years 2 with young trees. The plants 

 gave no adequate response in the first case and none at all in the 

 second. The results in the Auchter orchard tally closely with those 

 at the Station as the following statements show: 



When the experiment was in its infancy it was thought that all 

 apple orchards in New York needed phosphorus, accordingly acid 

 phosphate was prescribed and applied to the whole orchard at the 

 rate of 400 pounds per acre. There seems to have been more doubt 

 about the need of potassium; for this element in muriate of potash 

 at the rate of 400 pounds per acre was used experimentally on but 

 two cross-rows, 8 and 9 in the chart, running through both the 



1 N. Y. Sta. Bui. 289: 1907. 2 N. Y. Sta. Bui. 339: 1911. 



