INDIANA HORTICUJ.TURAL SOCIETY. 397 



the bone Into the ground. When yon take a form of fertilizer that is not 

 soluble it is the l)c'St plan to put it under ground. Leave the top of the 

 ground for the more soluble ones. If we could get ground phosphate 

 rock cheap enough it would be tine. It sells for $1G, which is $U more 

 than it is worth. This would be a lienetit to our fruit growers. We 

 could get it from France and Germany for much less than this if it 

 wasn't for the cost of getting it over here. I can't say about this 

 fertilizer for the Middle West for I am not acquainted with your land. 

 or with your figures. We have found that we like the nitrate of potash. 

 We use three parts of bone and one of nitrate of potash. If your land 

 Is rich it will not need so much feeding. 



We have found that you want to plant peaches on light ground. I 

 have found that if you cultivate a tree the leaves will drop off early, by 

 the first or middle of November, and I wondered if this was the rule with 

 all orchards, and I found that wherever I found cultivated orchards that 

 seven out of the ten trees would lose tlieir leaves early, and that on the 

 mulched orchards the leaves would be thick and green. The whole tree 

 would be green up until Christmas. It is not a good thing for trees to 

 shed their leaves too early. It is best for them to stick on the tree as 

 long as you can get them to. I presume this is true out here, that when 

 one cultivates they need to fertilize more. There is one thing we must not 

 forget in planting a large tree, and that is that there should be more 

 fertilizer when a large tree is planted. A large tree aijsolutely needs some 

 form of vegetable matter, not alone for the fact that it gives up nitrogen, 

 but because it helps hold water. My experience is that the peach is in 

 need of nitrogen in the soil more than any other form of fruit. You 

 should put something in the ground in the form of a good vegetable 

 fertilizer. I think you will like the color and character of your fruit if 

 this is done — if you put vegetable matter into the soil. I have found this 

 in regard to mulching— your fruit will be smaller but firmer, and darker 

 In color than when you cultivate the trees. It is a singular thing and I 

 can not explain it. It is a question of which kind of fruit you like best 

 One is higher in color, but is not so firm. 



There is one more thing in my mind. I am not afraid to say this to a 

 gathering of intelligent men and women like this. I do not like to leave 

 this subject of planting trees unless I say a few words about the spiritual 

 side of planting trees. There are different ways of looking at the farm. 

 This Is shown by this illustration. Two men lived neighbors; went to the 

 same church; their children attended the same school; drank out of the 

 same well, and both men worked on farms, but what a difference in their 

 home coming. One man looked and longed for the sun to set and did not 

 see that God had painted the sunlight on the hills and sky l)Ut saw 

 nothing in this but the closing of another day of toil and drudgery. lie 

 said that life was not worth living, and he would to God he could get 

 away from the drudgery and toil of the farm. But how different with the 



