18 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



cross pollination, running out of varieties, change of climate and many 

 other causes. About ten or twelve years ago, the Department of Horti- 

 culture of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station began work in 

 that section in an effort to improve the situation. It began to test 

 fertilizing materials, and what 1 have to say is a report of what was 

 learned m those experiments and of how the practice has spread into 

 other parts of the state. The work began with field experiments. Var- 

 ious rows in the orchards were fertilized with different materials and 

 different combinations of materials. One row would have nitrate of 

 soda, another acid phosphate, another muriate of potash, another nitrate 

 of soda, and acid phosphate combined, another nitrate of soda, muriate 

 of potash combined, another acid phosphate and muriate of potash 

 combined, another all three materials and others were left as checks to 

 which nothing was applied. In some of the orchards certain of the 

 rows were mulched with straw; in other instances the trees were given 

 double amounts of fertilizers and in others the amounts were cut in half. 

 Some rows were given applications of manure. In this waj^ it is pos- 

 sible to test the various materials which might be expected to give bene- 

 ficial results. 



Perhaps we can get to the heart of the matter most quickly and defi- 

 nitely by saying first of all that those rows or plats that were fertilized 

 with nitrate of soda alone or in combination with other materials re- 

 sponded immediately to the application. The first year the application 

 was made after the bloom and results began to appear in about two 

 weeks. The trees making a better start and the leaves were a darker 

 green. They looked much more vigorous than those not fertilized. 

 In every orchard in which this work was carried on the same general 

 improvement was shown. The same thing is true in the general orchard 

 practice in the state. 



Acid Phosphate was used alone and in combination with other ma- 

 terials. Alone it seemed to have practically no effect in producing 

 greater fruitfulness or vigor. When used with nitrate of soda the results 

 were sometimes a little better than with the nitrate alone. This was 

 especially true in the Pennsylvania experiments on orchard fertilization. 



In the Ohio experiments potash has failed to give any beneficial re- 

 sults; in some other states it has shown itself to be profitable. Whether 

 you would get any benefit from using it on your sandier ground I do 

 not know. 



A word or two concerning other materials carrying nitrogen may be 

 of interest. On those soils in which the experimental work was carried 

 on manure gave rather indifferent and inconsistent results. It is prob- 

 able that in some of these cases the soils were too much run together to 

 utilize the manure in full value immediately when used only as a top 

 dressing. Its continued use, however, in other sections of the state has 

 operated to maintain and increase satisfactorily the fertility of orchards. 

 Bone and tankage were used in some orchards and agam with these 

 materials beneficial action was slow. For the first five years at least, 

 results were too inconsequential to be considered of value when com- 

 pared with those accruing from the use of nitrate of soda. However, 

 beginning about the sixth year those plats treated with bone and tank- 

 age have begun to improve more conspicuously. The grass in the orch- 

 ards is beginning to be of better quahty, thicker and higher than that in 



