228 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



This treatment not only conserves the soil moisture, but helps the roots 

 to get air, and altogether acts as a stimulant. 



6. Actual fertilizers may be applied before showers, assuming that 

 even in a drouth light showers may occur. Well-rotted manure and com- 

 mercial fertilizers may be used, or better still, a mixture of equal weights 

 of the following chemicals may be applied to the ground, preferably just 

 prior to a shower: 



Sodium nitrate 

 Potassium sulphate 

 Acid phosphate. 



7. If your trees are in a plantation at least several years old, it is 

 w^ll to keep the ground in an porous condition best effected by the pres- 

 ence of leaf mold, or humus. This substance acts like a sponge in re- 

 taining moisture which otherwise would escape into the air. The humus 

 is maintained in the soil by causing the plantation to grow so densely that 

 sun and air do not consume the humus. Thus by a little forethought and 

 skill the drouthy conditions can be largely controlled. 



CONCLUSION. 



In brief, the most important effects of drouth are manifested by loss 

 of wood production, relatively of little consequence; by impaired vitality 

 of the trees, thus rendering them subject to many diseases and therefore 

 of great moment, and by the loss of suppressed trees, a matter of less im- 

 portance. The remedies are not always practicable, but consist chiefly 

 in stimulating the trees by cultivation and by the direct application of 

 fertilizers. It is only a matter of expediency that we should plant trees 

 of species best suited to enduring drouth conditions. 



WINTER CAflE OF BUSH FRUIT. 



G. S. Christy, Johnson. 



There is no fruit that comes so near retaining the natural flavor when 

 canned as the raspberry. Consequently there is always a big demand for 

 the berries, both red and black, a demand that is never quite supplied. 

 You ask the commercial grower why, and he complains of winter-killing 

 or berries drying on the bush. As to winter-killing, I believe in this lati- 

 tude there is never a serious case of winter injury that was not summer- 

 crippled. Anthracnose is the arch enemy of the black caps and crown 

 gall of the reds. Eradicate these two enemies and Nemaha county could 

 supply the state with berries. Some varieties show more resistance to 

 disease than others. I buy every "anthracnose-proof" raspberry I hear of, 

 and sometimes I find I have paid some promoter for being a comical liar. 

 Again I have received my money's worth. Kansas and Gregg are the 

 most susceptible of any varieties I have ever had and Plum Farmer the 

 best. 



