THE USE OF FERTILIZERS 99 



ACTUAL PRACTICE 



It will be very interesting at this point to see what 

 the fruit growers of the country actually do in fer- 

 tilizing their peach orchards. In a recent inquiry 

 which the writer made among the peach growers of 

 the United States and Canada, about 150 gave 

 definite statements regarding their methods of fer- 

 tilization. The following tabulation shows the num- 

 ber of times each type of fertilization was mentioned 

 in the replies : 



None whatever 69 



Barnyard manure 43 



Mixed commercial fertilizer 7 



Cottonseed meal 2 



Tobacco dust i 



Lime 4 



Nitrate of soda 6 



Ground fish i 



Potash, mostly muriate 47 



Nitrate of potash i 



Sulphate of potash 4 



Kainit 3 



Ashes 22 



Acid phosphate 13 



South Carolina rock 4 



Bone 30 



"Potash" 10 



One of the most remarkable things in this tabu- 

 lation is the amount of bad practice shown. The 

 fact that something over one-third of the peach 

 growers who testified admitted that they used no 

 fertilizer whatever is a very bad showing. The 

 fact that 43 others used barnyard manure, which 

 is not well adapted to the practical needs of 



