EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 31 



overdone — have seen quality of the product injured by it, where a moderate 

 supply would have produced desired results in both quality and quantity; but 

 perhaps the wrong kind of food was given. Possibly the right sort of food 

 would relieve apples of the fungus known as scab. To do the same I have 

 used a solution of corrosive sublimate, sprayed on, and it has been efficacious 

 to some extent. I used one part of sublimate to 10,000 parts of water and 

 found that a little too strong. It was applied in spring, just after the blos- 

 soming. The same solution also kills the codlin moth and curculio and seems 

 to prevent rot of plums. I have tried commercial fertilizer for onions, with 

 fair success, raising them upon ground that would not otherwise have raised 

 them. The kind used was garden city phosphate and one ton was used on 

 four acres of the onions — worked into the soil before planting. The soil was 

 upland and I got forty cents per bushel for the onions when swamp onions 

 brought but fifteen cents. I used the same fertilizer on strawberries, on a 

 small scale, but it seemed to produce an excess of foliage. 



A. G. Gulley of South Haven: My experience is against subsoiling for onions. 

 As to intensive horticulture, there are but few places where it can be profitably 

 practiced. In most localities land is cheaper than labor and it is therefore 

 best to use more of it. Where land is high, practice of intensive horticulture 

 becomes desirable. 



Prof. Taft: I have tried nearly all the phosphates and have grown wary 

 of them ; but it is always safe to use ashes or the potash which they suf>ply 

 — the sulphate of potash for vegetables, the muriate for fruit. 



Thos. Wilde (replying to a question): I give onions shallow or deep culti- 

 vation according to season. This year I used the Perry scarifier and deeper 

 cultivation than usual I had a later crop but a better yield in consequence. 



President Lyon : I would ask Prof. Taf c what fertilizers he would use in 

 intensive horticulture on light soils. 



Prof. Taft: Soluble fertilizers would be largely lost because they would go 

 down. Ground bone is excellent in such cases and its influence is felt at 

 once. The salts of potash would be largely lost. Such soils would require, 

 for fruit, 500 pounds of muriate of potash per acre, while ordinarily 150 to 

 200 pounds would be sufficient. 



C. F. Wheeler of Hubbardston: I once planted forty grape-vines on light 

 soil unfertilized. I piled ashes from the house about them and in the course 

 of years these became very thick. They now bear good crops, though none 

 at all at first; but while the bunches are of fair size they do not equal the 

 fruit on systematically pruned vines. 



W. H. Parmelee of Billiards^ Allegan county: The past few summers 1 

 have engaged in onion culture, using barnyard manure, and I can not afford 

 to spread it thinly. Where ray cultivation was most intensive the results 

 were the best. My onions were on a dry piece of muck. I used some ashes 

 and they told decidedly, though they were spread lighly on the surface, be- 

 fore the seed came up ; but on that part of the field I got carrots at the rate 

 of 1,738 bushels per acre. My Red Wethersfield onions yielded 600 bushels 

 per acre, Soutbport White about the same, Danvers somewhat less. 



J. A. Pearce of Grand Eapida : I have noticed a marked difference, from 

 the use of ashes, in the size, quality, and color of fruit. One of my acquaint- 

 ances, having applied ashes heavily to his peach orchard, the soil being a 

 .good clay loam, this year gave it a good dressing of muck, and he had the 

 finest peaches that entered the Grand Eapids market this season. Beyond 



