4o6 State Horticultural Society. 



green color, and the new growth is- ample, we may say that the soil h 

 supplying plenty of nitrogen, and that it is not necesary to add more. 

 When these latter conditions are emphasized, that is, when there is an 

 unusual and even an unnecessary leaf and wood growth, when the 

 vegetative processes are particularly active at the expense of fruitful- 

 ness, we may conclude that there is more available nitrogen than is nec- 

 essary, and it will be profitable to grow some crop in the orchard th.at 

 will remove a portion of this nitrogen, such as a corn crop, if the trees 

 are small enough to make this fcasibl.^, or of timothy in an older or- 

 chard, the timothy being mown and removed from the land. It is never 

 advisable, however, to allow orchards to remain long in timothy, even 

 though it be necessary to plow the land in the spring, cultivate during the 

 summer and resow in September, for while in sod there is a tendency for 

 the tree roots to develop very near the surface, and if this process be 

 permitted to go on for several years there will be a serious disturbance 

 of the root system when the land is again put in cultivation. 



SUPPLYING MINERALS. 



The mineral element of plant food required in the largest quantity 

 b\ the fruit, as has already been pointed out, is potash. Only about 

 one-fourth as much phosphoric acid as of potash is required. A rela- 

 tively large amount of lime is required for the development of the leaf. 

 By reference to the table of the composition of soils, already presented, it 

 will be observed that the content of potash is relatively large in most 

 of our Missouri soils, particularly if we consider the subsoil to a depth 

 of three feet, which is certainly not beyond the reach of a growing tree 

 on any soil on, which a sane man would plant an orchard. In other 

 words, there would seem to be sufficient potash to supply all the needs 

 of trees for many years to come, and that this would be one of the last 

 elements to be supplied artifically. Considering, however, the special 

 need of bearing trees for potash, it is believed that this element can be 

 profitably applied over most of the Ozark region at any rate. 



The amount of phosphoric acid in the soil is not nearly so large, 

 and perhaps is rendered available more slowly, and is one of the first 

 elements to be exhausted under the ordinary system of grain farming. 



Land, therefore, that has been grown in the ordinary farm crops 

 for many years before it was planted to orchard, is quite likely soon to 

 need a limited supply of phosphoric acid in some reasonably readily 

 available form. Virgin soils planted to orchards would naturally seem 

 to be less in need of this element, and at the same time, when it is con- 

 sidered that these soils are in all probability thinner and contained orig 



