Fertilizers for Peach Orchards 171 



shown the method. In this they render every peach- 

 grower a service, even though the results cannot be appHed 

 in detail to individual cases. 



If a peach-grower is operating on a very small scale, he 

 does not have a great deal at stake in his fertilizer bills and 

 may be warranted in following whatever practice seems to 

 give good results. But the extensive grower can hardly 

 afford not to work out these problems in his own orchard, 

 especially in case he is making a considerable expenditure 

 annually for fertilizers. Otherwise, he may be buying 

 and applying plant-foods for which he is getting no returns, 

 or else by adding a small quantity of something he little 

 suspects his trees need he may obtain beneficial results en- 

 tirely out of proportion to the cost involved. But to ascer- 

 tain just what plant-food or foods should be applied to his 

 orchard, and in what quantity, in order to give him the 

 best and at the same time the most economically produced 

 crops, is the real problem. A simple set of experiments 

 which any careful fruit-grower can carry out will supply 

 more information than can be secured in any other 

 way. 



Such a set of experiments should be located in as repre- 

 sentative a part of the orchard as can be selected and where 

 the soil conditions are uniform. The plan should be to 

 apply to selected representative trees in the section of the 

 orchard where the work is to be located the different plant- 

 foods both separately and in different combinations. The 

 applications should be made in early spring about the time 

 the trees are renewing their seasonal growth. The simplest 

 arrangement which at the same time is comprehensive 

 that can be suggested includes the following plant-food 

 groups : 



