THE FAMILY ORCHARD 183 



a fair supply of plant food. Nitrogenous barnyard 

 manures are not particularly good for fruit trees, 

 except to keep up the supply of vegetable matter 

 when that is being depleted, and they are more prej- 

 udicial to the health of the peach tree than to any 

 other species of fruit. Supposing the soil to have 

 plenty of humus or vegetable matter, mineral fer- 

 tilizers should be given to the peach trees. Of these 

 potash is the most important, and after that phos- 

 phoric acid. The potash can be given in the form 

 of wood ashes, but more economically in the form of 

 muriate of potash. The phosphoric acid can best be 

 applied in the form of basic slag meal (Thomas 

 phosphate powder). 



Young trees and such as show sparse yellow foli- 

 age should have a limited amount of nitrogen. On 

 moderately good soil a young peach tree ought to 

 thrive on a ration consisting of one ounce of nitrate 

 of soda, one pound of slag meal and one pound of 

 muriate. A five-year-old tree bearing a good crop 

 of fruit should have two ounces of nitrate of soda, 

 three pounds of basic slag and three pounds of mu- 

 riate. In any case these plant foods should be sowed 

 under the trees, but not too near the trunks, say in 

 a zone from i to 8 feet in radius; and should be 

 raked or harrowed into the surface of the soil. 



Some cover crop should always be sown in the 

 family orchard. In the southern states this ought 

 to be cowpeas ; in the middle states it ought to be 

 crimson clover; in the northern states it ought to be 

 mammoth clover or winter vetch. Winter vetch 

 seed is so expensive as almost to preclude its use in 

 commercial orchards, but need not be seriously con- 

 sidered in the family garden. 



The family orchard will properly contain a wide 

 selection of varieties — some early, some late ; some 



