1856.] Fertilizers for Fruit Trees. 129 



tr i\t tftrlUi^trs for ^ruit c^rjces. 



The following article, from the pen of Marshall P. Wilder, of Boston, 

 Massachusetts, is worthy the attention of all fruit raisers. He says : 



" In relation to appropriate fertilizers for fruit trees, a diversity of 

 opinion prevails. All agree that certain substances exist in plants and 

 trees, and that those must be contained in the soil, to produce growth, 

 elaboration, and perfection. To supply these, some advocate the use of 

 what are termed * special manures ; ' others ridicule the idea. I would 

 suggest, whether this is not a difference in language, rather than in prin- 

 ciple ; for, in special fertilizers, the first make use simply of those which 

 correspond with the constituents of the crop ; but are not the second 

 careful to select and apply manures which contain these elements ? And 

 do they not, in practice, affix the seal of their approbation to the theory 

 which they oppose ? Explode this doctrine, and do you not destroy the 

 principle of manuring, and the necessity of a rotation of crops ? Trees 

 exhaust the soil of certain ingredients, and, like animals, must have their 

 appropriate food. All know how difficult it is to make a fruit tree 

 flourish on the spot from which an old tree of the same species has been 

 removed. 



" The great practical question now agitating the community is, How 

 shall we ascertain what fertilizing elements are appropriate to a particu- 

 lar species of vegetation ? To this two replies are rendered. Some say, 

 analyze the crop ; others, the soil. Each, I think, maintains a truth ; 

 and bothi together, nearly the whole truth. We need the analysis of the 

 crop to teach us its ingredients ; and, if the soil does not contain them, 

 what fertilizers must be applied to supply them. Thus, by analysis, wc 

 learn that nearly a quarter part of the constituents of the pear, the 

 grape, and the strawberry, consists of potash. This abounds in new 

 soils, and peculiarly adapts them to the production of these fruits ; but 

 having been extracted from soils long under cultivation, it is supplied by 

 wood ashes or potash, the value of which has, of late, greatly increased, 

 in the estimation of cultivators. 



" Among the arts of modern cultivation, universal experience attests to 

 the great advantage of ' mulching' the soil around fruit trees, as a means 

 of fertilization, and of preservation from drought and heat, so common 

 with us in midsummer. In illustration of this, experiment has proved 

 that on dry soils, where the earth has been strewn with straw, the crops 

 have been as large without manure as they were with it where evapo- 

 ration has disengaged the fertilizing elements of the soil." 



VOL. I., NO. III. — 9 



