PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. 281 



phosphoric acid and potash. This is all, we may say, before fruiting 

 time. When that tree comes into bearing, the lines below indicate the 

 relative amount of these materials used in producing fruit. You will 

 see there a line about a foot long, of green, representing the amount 

 of nitrogen, about eight inches of phosphoric acid, and some three or four 

 feet of potash. This brings us back to the old question of the necessity 

 of applying potash to the soil when the tree is bearing fruit. This chart 

 is based on actual chemical analysis made by our chemist at the station. 

 Therefore it appears to me we can give to the fruiting tree, or the grow- 

 ing tree, all the nitrogen it may need by growing such leguminous crops 

 as I have mentioned in this paper. I am now inclined to favor Mammoth 

 clover. We can balance the ration by adding, in the form of commercial 

 fertilizers, phosphoric acid and potash, and by following this practice 

 there should be no diflflculty in protecting our trees from root-killing, 

 at the same time giving them the necessary amount of food rations in a 

 well-balanced form. 



The President: This particularly applies to apple orchards, does it 

 not? 



Prof. Craig: Yes, sir. 



The President: The people of our state are a little more exercised 

 to find a good soil-covering, for peach orchards, and we believe it is not 

 necessary to hunt for nitrogen, as a rule, in our peach orchards; that is, 

 to put nitrogen catch-crops on, as a rule. 



Mr. Lyon: I would like to ask Mr. Morrill, because I understand he 

 uses potash extensively, and wood ashes, where he gets them; and if not, 

 when he uses a substitute, what it is? 



The President: I hope that President Lyon will not insist upon my 

 telling him just exactly where I get them, because there is a whole lot 

 of places around here that want wood ashes. I get them from 

 Indiana, in carload lots. I have never tried any substitute yet, for ashes, 

 because I like that form of potash best. 



Mr. Ramsdell: How much do you put on to the acre? 



The President: About a hundred bushels every other year. If I hap- 

 pen to get a surplus, I go over the orchard twice per year, and I have 

 an idea that the potash does not get away from me; that I will find it 

 there in the course of time. 



Professor Craig: What was your question, Mr. Morrill? 



The President: Whether we should pay so much attention to hunting 

 for a nitrogen crop in our peach orchards as you lay stress upon here 

 in apple orchards? Nitrogen is conducive to late growth, and we are a 

 little afraid of it. 



Prof. Craig: I do not think, in growing a clover crop and securing 

 from it the amount of nitrogen which 3Iammoth clover might give you, 

 that you would run any danger of getting too late a growth. I do not 

 think we should lose sight of the fact that we are always using up nitro- 

 gen in the production of all fruits, as in the case of apples. You will see 

 it comes next to potash in importance, upon the chart, and I do not 

 think, mj^self, that you would run any risk at all. Of course, in using 

 wood ashes you get two per cent, of phosphoric acid, or one and one 

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