152 Peach-Growing 



the use of fertilizers call for settlement and definite action 

 only after all the benefits of tillage and a liberal humus 

 supply in the soil have been taken fully into account. 



The very local nature of the fertilizer problem is thus 

 declared. Hardly any two orchards are managed the 

 same with respect to the soil; scarcely any two pieces of 

 land have the same history w^ith reference to the crops 

 they have produced previous to their being used for orchard 

 purposes. These factors and others have their influence 

 on the plant-food content of the soil. It follows, therefore, 

 that every orchard presents to the owner its individual ferti- 

 lizer problems ; and that when the needs of one orchard have 

 been determined it signifies little or nothing with reference to 

 another orchard, unless it happens that the soil conditions 

 with reference to fertility are substantially the same in both 

 orchards. It is entirely possible that a fertilizer which is 

 the most economical to use in one orchard and which pro- 

 duces marked results will not be the most economical in 

 another orchard, or, if applied, may even fail entirely to gain 

 response of any kind. 



The fertilizer problems in peach-growing are so local that 

 they must be worked out on a rational economical basis, if 

 at all, for each orchard ; and where the soil in an orchard is 

 not fairly uniform, different parts of the same orchard re- 

 quire different treatment with respect to fertilizers. It is 

 only one step farther to say that the fertilizer needs of an 

 orchard at any given period in its life may not be the same 

 as they will be three or five or ten years later. It depends 

 on the treatment the orchard receives meanwhile, together 

 with the inherent characteristics of the soil. Moreover, 

 there are no short-cut methods by which a peach-grower 

 can find out whether his orchard needs fertilizers, and if 



