398 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



applied. When an orchard gets grown to near its full size, it is 

 not so desirable that materials should be applied to force the growth 

 of the wood, as it is to force the growth of the fruit ; this is a fact 

 that ought not to be lost sight of. An orchard just set, will bear 

 more nitrogen and potash than the orchard that is fully grown. 



In applying fertilizers to an orchard, it should be spread over 

 the entire surface of the ground, and not applied, as some do only 

 a few feet from the tree. The feeding roots of a tree are at the 

 small ends of the roots, more than at the large ends near the tree, 

 and they are also very near the surface, where the land is not 

 ploughed every year, therefore, whatever fertilizer is applied should 

 be spread evenly over the surface, and left but a few inches under 

 it, then the feeding roots will easily reach it. — Massachusetts 

 Ploioman. 



FERTILIZING PEACH ORCHARDS. 



Keferring to Prof. Penhallow's experiments to find remedies 

 for the " yellows" in peach trees the New England Farmer says : 

 Without going into details, we may say that muriate of potash and 

 dissolved bone have been found to give excellent results. In one 

 case, where several diseased trees Avere treated with different kinds 

 of fertilizers, the only one that became healthy was the one 

 manured with muriate of potash. Similar results have been 

 obtained at the Massachusetts State College Farm, where Dr. Goss- 

 man has been applying muriate of potash to peach trees. So 

 strongly do indications point in this direction, that J. W. Clark, 

 who has one of the largest and best peach orchards in the state, 

 has discarded all other fertilizers for peach trees except bone and 

 potash. The explanation seems in part to be tlmt ordinary stable 

 manures contain too much nitrogen for the healthy growth of the 

 peach, causing too luxuriant a growth of leaf and wood, especially 

 late in the season, and that this late soft growth cannot endure our 

 ordinary winter weather. Prof. Clarke, we believe, is in doubt 

 whether the "yellows" should be classed as a specific disease, but 

 thinks it may be only a condition of partial starvation, caused by 

 being restricted to an ill-proportioned supply of plant food. 



Some of the finest peach orchards to be found anywhere are 

 fertilized almost exclusively with unleached wood ashes. On the 

 general effect of nitrogenous manures upon vegetation, Messrs. 

 Lawes and Gilbert remark in one of their reports, that "it should 

 be called to mind that a general tendency of nitrogenous manures 

 is to favor luxuriant and continuous growth, as distinguished from 



