386 State Horticultural Society. 



In llicsc respects mistakes in orcliard management and cspecialK in 

 orchard feeding are particularly costly and disastrous, and have no par- 

 allel in the management and fertilization of other agricultural plants. 

 A mistake, for example, in the fertilization of a corn crop is limited 

 in its unfavorable results to the season in which the mistake is made, 

 and under ordinary circumstances involves only a loss of the money 

 paid for the fertilizer — the fertilizer at the most failing to produce 

 any gain. It is possible, however, for a mistake in the fertilization of 

 a pear orchard for example to result in the total destruction of that 

 orchard by blight, or the limiting of the usefulness of the trees for many 

 years to come. 



On the other hand, there are somewhere and at some time forces 

 at w^ork which determine wdiether a bud shall result in the growth of 

 leaf, stalk and stem or shall produce fruit. Without doubt, the kind and 

 amount of available plant food in a soil during the previous season, 

 together with the physical condition of the soil, taken in connection 

 with the treatment of the land from the opening of spring until the 

 latter part of June, exert a large influence upon the question as to 

 whether a tree will set fruit buds for the following year or produce only 

 growth buds. So far as we know, at some time between the starting 

 of growth In the early spring and the practical limit of length of growth 

 in the latter part of June or early July, for the latitude of Central Mis- 

 souri, this difterentiation between fruit buds and growth buds occurs. 

 Part of the influences afi'ecting this dififerentiation are unquestionably 

 climatic, and are, therefore, practically beyond our control. Apparently, 

 however, the chief factors affecting this result are within our control, 

 if we knew just what combination of conditions to make. 



Theoretically, it would seem to be possible to take a soil very de- 

 ficient in plant food but having a proper physical condition, and by 

 supplying the plant food artificially, and therefore in the proper pro- 

 portions, so as to hasten or retard growth as it might be found neces- 

 sary, and, barring seasons when the fruit is killed by the weather, 

 insure full fruiting every year. 



The farmer in the arid region finds it more convenient and profit- 

 able in irrigating to supply all the water that the crops require so as 

 to be able to control conditions rather than to have his plans entirely 

 upset by an unexpected rain. For this reason, irrigation in this humid 

 climate is fraught with many difficulties and uncertainties, just as is 

 the feeding of fruit trees on a soil that itself supplies a goodly amount 

 of plant food, but an amount that varies from season to season. Moreover 

 the trees vary greatly in the amount of plant food required in different 



