162 Peach-Growing 



Other investigators have worked on the plant-food re- 

 quirements from another standpoint — that of " question- 

 ing the soil/' as it would be expressed by one of the earlier 

 professors of agriculture. Application of different plant- 

 foods and in varying combinations and amounts have been 

 made for a series of years to selected blocks of trees in com- 

 mercial orchards and the results of the different fertilizer 

 treatments carefully recorded each season. 



This type of experiment conducted in chert and shale 

 soils in the Potomac Valley region of West Virginia has 

 yielded well defined results, though not in all respects con- 

 firming preconceived ideas with reference to the use of 

 fertilizers in peach orchards. In summarizing the results 

 of this work, Alderman ^ comments in part as follows : 



1. ''At Sleepy Creek, West Virginia, an experiment with 

 bearing trees has been in progress four years on a shale 

 loam soil low in fertility, twenty trees of Carman and Wad- 

 dell peaches constituting a plat. 



2. "The yearly growth of the trees treated with nitrate 

 of soda has been double that of plats receiving no 

 nitrogen. 



3. "At the end of the second year the bearing surface 

 of the nitrogen fertilized trees was 2| times that of the non- 

 nitrogen-fed block. At the end of the fourth year the dif- 

 ference was much greater. 



4. "The leaves of the nitrogen blocks were healthier 

 than the others, larger in size, about 2| times as numerous, 

 and made up nearly four times greater area per tree. 



5. "The nitrogen plats have set an average of 76 per 

 cent fruit-buds each year against 60 per cent in the non- 

 nitrogen plats. 



1 W. Va. Expt. Sta. BuU. 150. 



