120 STATE BOARD OF AGEICULTURE. 



far better than can be obtained when the orchard is kept in timothy or 

 blue-grass sod, or when clover is grown and the cr6p is taken off once or 

 twice each year. Some recommend using the orchards as pastures for 

 sheep or hogs during the summer that Ihey may eat the fruit that drops 

 from the trees, and thus destroy the insects that it usually contains. If 

 there is clover in the orchard, they will seldom injure the trunks of the 

 trees but, unless the trunks are high, the sheep may browse the lower 

 branches and destroy all of the fruit within reach. 



MANURING. 



Many of our old orchards have made annual growths of but three or 

 four inches, and few have grown more than six or eight. It can be put 

 down as a general rule, that unless the length of growth averages ten 

 or twelve inches the supply of plant food is insufficient, and manure in 

 some form should be supi>lied. In making a selection of the fertilizer 

 that is to be used for this purpose, the abundance and cost of the various 

 materials should be considered. -If they can be secured, the best dressing 

 for each acre of apple orchard that is undergoing renovation is about 

 twenty tons of partially decomposed stable manure and one hundred 

 bushels of unleached hard Avood ashes. The stable manure contains an 

 excess of nitrogen and will aid the trees in making a vigorous growth, 

 while wood ashes contain potash and phosphoric acid which will render 

 the growth firm and solid and aid in the formation of fruit buds. Wood 

 ashes vary, widely in the amount of plant food that they contain, but 

 if from hard wood and unleached there should be about five per cent of 

 potash and one and one-half per cent of phosphoric acid. Basswood and 

 elm contain more than maple, oak and beech, while the coniferous trees, 

 such as the pines, firs and spruces, contain somewhat less. If wet, or 

 leached, the amount of potash may be greatly reduced and care should 

 be used, in purchasing them, to get some idea of the amount of plant food 

 they contain. Aside from this the value of ashes will vary with their 

 abundance, as compared with stable manure. Thus if stable manure is 

 worth one dollar per ton, it would be unwise to pay more than three or 

 four dollars for a ton of an average grade of ashes. Each one must fix a 

 sort of sliding scale of prices for himself. Thus we can often get them 

 for five cents per bushel or less, but it will be cheaper to jjay even ten cents 

 per bushel than to pay one dollar per ton for stable manure delivered on 

 the land, Avhile fifteen cents per bushel will be cheap for the ashes, as com- 

 pared Avith the cost of commercial fertilizers. The value of stable manure 

 varies widely but, considering its importance in supplying humus, and 

 as compared with commercial fertilizers, a good grade of stable manure 

 from grain-fed animals is w^orth two dollars per ton delivered and spread 

 on the land. The figures given as the value of wood ashes and stable 

 manure, as compared with commercial fertilizers, are. I am well aware, 

 much higher than is commonly paid for these materials. My reason for 

 giving them as I have is that I am often asked, ''What kind of commercial 

 fertilizer shall I get for my orchards, as I cannot obtain either stable 

 manure or wood ashes?" My answer is. "that if you cannot get wood 

 ashes and stable manure for the prices named, I suggest the use of fifty 

 to one hundred pounds of nitrate of soda, one hundred to two hundred 



