Page Six 



BETTER FRUIT 



May, 1922 



been adding yearly a reasonable supply of 

 vegetable tissue to decay there and add its 

 portion of nitrogen and help hold the 

 water-soluble nitrogen in the soil. The 

 rainfall of the district has carried out 

 water during the winter usually more 

 rapidlv than during the summer so that the 

 amount of nitrogen material that becomes 

 water-soluble during the winter is to a very 

 large extent lost. The plants start grow- 

 ing in the spring in a soil that is but little, 

 if any, more fertile than it was at the close 

 of the grow'ing season in the previous year. 



As a contrast I want to cite you the fact 

 that in the dry land district some little pro- 

 gress is made in the warmer districts by the 

 accumulation of this nitrogen supplied by 

 the crops. There is not ordinarily the 

 rapid growth of many plants in the early 

 spring in your heavy rainfall sections that 

 is common in manv districts of lesser rain- 

 fall. 



I have mentioned Clarke county as an 

 illustration of a district in which the nitro- 

 gen supply in the soil has run below that 

 best suited for crop production. With the 

 addition of nitrogen in an available form 

 their crops have shown splendid improve- 

 ment and there is every reason for them to 

 be optimistic about the permanency of the 

 agricultural development. 



Potash, is another material that in many 

 localities is wanting in the soil to such an 

 extent that the plants are retarded in their 

 growth. Potash is more readily soluble than 

 is phosphorous^. Consequently the heavy 

 rainfall carries out large quantities of this 

 plant food material unless a system of crop 

 and soil management is established that will 

 keep the soil well occupied and the potash 

 that is dissolved will be absorbed by the 

 decaying vegetable material. 



Potash and phosphorus are contained as a 

 part of the soil itself. The original source 

 of such material is from the rock from 

 which the soil is made. Soils that are 

 derived from granite and basalt rock or 

 volcanic ash soils are usually rich in both 

 of these materials. However, heavy rain- 

 fall over land composed of such materials 

 will in time deplete the supply unless such 

 soils are so handled that a large supply of 

 vegetable material is turned under fre- 

 quently. Lands that have been in timber 

 or native growth and have received a good 

 mulch of vegetable material each year have 

 usually been found to be well supplied. 

 When such soil is brought under cultiva- 

 tion, however, and given to the use of 

 plants which do not turn back to the soil 

 each year large quantities of vegetable 

 material, a process of depletion sets in and 

 the time required for the wasteful process 

 to absorb the stored material is measured by 

 the conditions" existing, but that it will be 

 attained sometime can be marked as an 

 absolute certainty. 



We often hear people say that the trees 

 grow all right, but do not have the proper 

 kind of food to cause them to fruit well. 

 This is an error. An abundant supplv of 



plant food material, with a reduced water 

 supply, may cause trees to be changed from 

 the yearly wood growing habit to that of 

 slower growth and fruit production. It is 

 all the same kind and type of plant food 

 material in the soil and no one of these 

 materials commonly thought of as fertilizer 

 has a special function to perform in the 

 development of a certain part of the plant. 



It is a common impression that phos- 

 phorus is particularly used in developing 

 the fruit and seed and nitrogen in develop- 

 ing the foliage and wood. This may all be 

 true, but it is only half the truth. Potash 

 and phosphorus are also used in developing 

 the foliage and wood and nitrogen unA 

 potash are used in developing the seed, and 

 so on through the list. All of these ...rf- 

 terials are necessary to development of the 

 plant. And a well balanced proportion ot 

 material forms a fertile soil. 



The lack of fertility in a soil is usually 

 indicated by poor and unsatisfactory growth 

 of the plant. It may in part be indicated 

 bv the lack of satisfactory fruit produc- 

 tion. A soil may contain a great quantity 

 of the plant food materials, but if it lacks 

 in one essential, that one essential element 

 will measure the amount of growth and de- 



velopment that can reasonably be expected 

 to take place in the orchard. The onl\' 

 way to determine what particular material 

 is under-supplied in the orchard is to fer- 

 tilize different areas with different material 

 and compare results. At the same time one 

 definite plot should be left unfertilized in 

 order to make sure that our improvement in 

 growth, if any is obtained, is not due to 

 causes other than the application of the 

 fertilizer in question. 



HOW To Test Soii-s — One of the best 

 methods of soil testing known is to 

 fertilize one small plot with nitrogen, 

 another with phosphoric acid, a third with 

 potash, a fourth with nitrogen, and phos- 

 phorus, a fifth with nitrogen and potash, 

 a sixth with potash and phosphorus and a 

 seventh with all three combined. Then, if 

 one plot is left unfertilized you should 

 have a series of eight plots. If there is 

 reason to believe that lime is wanted, it is 

 a good plan to lay out your fertilized plots 

 in long strips and run your lime across one 

 end of your fertilized plots. This will 

 give you all of the desired combinations 

 and will enable you to determine whether 

 {Cofitlnticd on page 22) 



Tests in Curbing Melon Pests 



By H. A. Cardinell and E. M. Page 



Unhersity of Missouri College of Agriculture, Columbia 



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Operator in Missouri cantaloupe field dusting wi 



MELON growers have never in the past 

 had a material that would satisfac- 

 torily control the striped and spotted cu- 

 cumber beetles. The United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, Department Cir- 

 cular 154, gave the results of several years' 

 trial with nicotine sulfate in a dust form 

 that showed promise of being of unusual 

 interest to growers confronted with these 

 insects. A few melon and truck crop 

 growers were able to obtain this dust in 



th hand machine against cucumber beetles, 

 time for trial in the summer of 1921. 

 Only the 10 per cent strength of the 40 

 per cent nicotine sulfate dust was used by 

 Missouri growers in whose fields our 

 studies were made, because these beetles 

 required this strength. 



Applications of this dust every five to 

 seven days, during the active beetle season, 

 gave nearlv perfect control and a minimum 

 of beetle injury, while untreated fields, 



(Cnnl'niiuii on page 1'7^ 



