Winter Meeting. 399 



plants die \vitli the first frost, and the land is not, therefore, so well 

 protected in winter against washing as is the case when crimson clover 

 is grown. 



In favorable seasons the ordinary red clover niav be sown in Jnly 

 and a good winter cover and a liberal quantity of hunins secured, to be 

 disced or plowed in the soil the following spring. 



It too often happens that the orchardist limits liis effort to th(; 

 supplying of humus and nitrogen through leguminous crops, and trusts 

 to the soil entirely for the mineral ingredients necessary to the proper 

 nourishment of his orchard. He should remember, however, that on 

 many soils the introduction of the humus and the cultivation necessary 

 to incorporate it with the soil, while effective in unlocking the mineral 

 constituents, do not operate rapidly enough to supply the trees in full 

 bearing with the necessary potash, and in some cases the phosphoric acid 

 required. To make the nitrogen that he is adding to the soil really 

 eft'ective, it is necessary to introduce, in a commercial fertilizer, a quan- 

 tity of potash and phosphoric acid. As is. pointed out elsewhere, the 

 application of these minerals in amounts somewdiat in excess of the im- 

 mediate requirements of the trees is not such a serious waste, in view of 

 the fact that, unlike nitrogen applied in available form, comparatively 

 little of these elements of plant food is lost when not used by the 

 grow'ing plants the first season. Under good handling, practically all 

 of the potash and phosphoric acid may be recovered in succeeding 

 crops, in case more than is needed is applied at one time. 



IMPORTANCE OF TILLAGE. 



As has already been pointed out, tillage will greatly facilitate the 

 liberation of the mineral food of the soil, and it should not be forgotten 

 that a relatively large cpiantity of these minerals is required. For ex- 

 ample, a considerable part of the ash of wood growth is potash ; con- 

 siderably more than half of the ash in fruit consists of this material, 

 while, as we know, this element forms the basis of the common fruit 

 acids. 



The western orchardist has, I believe, led in the extent and thor- 

 oughness of orchard cultivation, and the eastern man, particularly the 

 New England, New York and Pennsylvania fruit man, has been dis- 

 posed, in the past, to look with disapproval upon this western practice. 

 It appears, however, from recent reports issued by the Cornell Univer- 

 sity. ='= that the sod treatment of bearing orchards, even on the best 

 apple land of New York, is proving less profitable than the culture treat- 



*A Bearing Orchard Survey of Orleans County. Bulletin 329, May, 1905. 



