70 Stale Horticuihirai Society. 



to five pounds of that composition to the tree. We have in the neighhor- 

 hood of thirteen milhon peach trees in commercial orchards. We do 

 not grow even cowpeas witlioiit fertilizer. I'he apple is largely potash, ac- 

 cording to the bulletin issued by the Cornell University. It takes about 60 

 pounds of potash and 20 pounds of phosphoric acid to produce an or- 

 (.linary crop of apples on one acre. If we haven't that in the soil, we 

 must apply it in order to give all the conditions before the perfection 

 of the fruit. I do not know what the feeling here is in regard to fer- 

 tilizing. I find in some instances that they are doubling their crops of 

 wheat by fertilizing. It seems to me that I would use it if I were grow- 

 ing orchards in Missouri. I would use some plant foods, especially those 

 that produce a first class crop of apples. In Georgia we do not grow much 

 but summer apples and La Conte pear. We have quit growing the Keiffer, 

 and in fact every other pear. We are turning our attention to peach 

 growing. We made last year in July, a shipment to Europe from the 

 Hale Orchard Company, which was successful, and another shipment was 

 made in September. I think the day is near when we will ship peaches to 

 Europe by the cargo, and that ships will be built for the purpose, in order 

 to carry the fruit tr> European countries. 



I suppose vou have considerable faith iu your soil here ; possibly more 

 than we have. We fertilize everything we grow, even peanuts. I will 

 show what fertilizer has done for Georgia. Until three years ago Texas 

 was first in the production of cotton, Mississippi next and Georgia third. 

 For the last three years we have been next to Texas. We are growing 

 more home supplies in Georgia than we ever grew before. We are 

 growing lots of wheat there. We use from four hundred to five hundred 

 thousand tons of fertilizer every year, and it pays us to do it. Fertilizer 

 is coming to thd front and is coming very fast. There are now over fi\ e 

 hundred fertilizer factories in Georgia. We get the potash from Ger- 

 many, and they take our phosphorous rock. 'Jliey take three times more 

 than we take of their potash. I hope that your experiments here will 

 show that fertilizer pays. I have met a number of strawberry growers. 

 One told me that he used a ton each year of the fertilizer, 10 per cent, 

 potash, 3 per cent, nitrogen and 8 per cent, phosphoric acid. He told me 

 that from present indication he would cut his acreage one-half (I think 

 he has an acreage of sixty acres) and try to raise on thirty acres what 

 he had raised on sixty. 



Farmers must study plant feeding. The fertilizer used for the pro- 

 duction of the plant is not the same you would use for the fruit. Use 

 nitrogen for the plant and phosphorous and potash for the fruit. 



L. A. Goodman.— What per -cent, of nitrogen do you use? 



