(540. ANNUAL, TiEPiDRT OF THE Off. Doc. 



and they show an increase of over 40 per cent, in favor of tillage 

 as compared with sod systems under approximately similar care 

 otherwise. This shows that whatever injury the roots may have 

 sustained has not interfered with the yield, which is what we are 

 after. 



A Member: Do your results apply to the peach as well as to 

 the apples? 



PROF. STEWART: Of course, they cannot apply as well to the 

 peach as to the apple, as these figures were all derived from ex- 

 periments with apples, but other records show that any stone fruit 

 requires even more cultivation than the apple. 



A Member: How about commercial fertilizer for peaches; is that 

 any benefit? 



PROF. STEWART : There is a good deal of difference of opinion 

 about that, and little experimental evidence. However, in an orchard 

 survey of Niagara county, N. Y., in which I had the pleasure of 

 participating, it is found that out of about 8,000 acres of peach 

 orchard, 80 per cent, of the orchards are receiving fertilizers of some 

 kind, either stable manure or commercial fertilizers, or both, and 

 these orchards are making much larger financial returns than the 

 others. I can't give you the exact figures. I have them in my oflSce, 

 but they are distinctly greater where fertilizer is being used, about 

 $20 to 145 per acre I believe, and these are five-year results, not the 

 results of only one year. 



A Member: What fertilizer would you use — potash, or nitrogen 

 or phosphorus, or all combined? 



PROF. STEWART : That is a question that can only be settled by 

 actual tests in the orchard. You will notice the summary that I 

 closed with ; that summary will guide you in the use of fertilizer as 

 well as anything I am able to tell you at this time. But there are 

 several things you must do in connection with putting on fertilizer. 

 You can't expect it to do the work of tillage, nor of any of the 

 other essentials in the care of the orchard. These things must be 

 done or your fertilizer may be thrown away. After they are done, 

 if there is a deficiency in either wood, fruit or foliage, the chances 

 are that an application of fertilizer will produce beneficial results. 

 Now what fertilizers shall you use? People have always been talk- 

 ing phosphorus and potash for fruits and yet our greatest effects thus 

 far are coming from nitrogen. This doesn't mean that the other 

 elements are not needed and it may very well happen that where 

 nitrogen is lacking, this lack must be met before any benefits can 

 be realized from the potash and phosphates. For the present, I would 

 recommend the use for general conditions of a fertilizer contain- 

 ing 30-60-100 pounds per acre of actual nitrogen, phosphoric acid 

 and potash, respectively. To bring up the nitrogen this can be 

 alternated with an eight to ten ton application of stable manure, 

 and supplemented with a leguminous cover crop or a permanent 

 cover. 



The SECRETARY : T should like to ask if one has an old apple 

 orchard that has not been cultivated, if it is advisable to plow it up 

 three inches, or less? 



PROF. STEWART: I should say that I would plow it up if it 

 is not now producing satisfactory results. 



PROF. SURFACE: What depth? 



