The Canadian HorticulturiS 



Vol. XXXIII 



AUGUST, 1910 



No. 8 



Fertilizers for the Orchard and Market Garden 



THE use of artificial fertilizers by 

 market-gardeners and fruit-growers 

 of late years has increased very con- 

 siderably. 



It is beginning to be generally recog- 

 nized that fertilizers yield their best re- 

 turns when applied to vegetable crops, 

 and unless there be an abundant avail- 

 able supply of farmyard manure, it is 

 a difficult matter to produce the maximum 

 crop on a small piece of land without en- 

 richment of the soil. 



Many successful market-gardeners in 

 the United States look upon artificial 

 fertilizers as a very necessary adjunct 

 to farmyard manure, and use it accoid- 

 ingly. Farmyard manure, while adding 

 humus to the soil, and improving its 

 physical texture and water holding 

 power as nothing else can, does not, how- 

 ever, supply large amounts of fertilizing 

 substances, and what is supplied is in a 

 more or less unavailable form and can- 

 not be used directly by the plant. For 

 instance, there is no better method of 



A. E. Slater, O. A. C, Gudph, Ont. 



slowly building up the fertility of any soil 

 than through the continued application 

 of barnyard manure, and the ploughing 

 down of leguminous crops, but if we 

 want immediate results, as for instance 

 the quick forcing and bringing to 

 maturity of a crop of lettuce or radishes. 



Pear Tree 

 No fertilizer applied. 



Pear Tree 



FertilizPd with Phosphoric Acid and Nitiogeti. 



or a good, heavy, well-matured crop of 

 tomatoes, we must adopt other means. 



THREE ESSENTIALS 



Three substances particularly are 

 needed for the growth of all plants : 

 Nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash. 

 A man who does not understand the 

 nature of • these three substances, or the 

 individual effect each one of them has 

 on the growth of the plant, cannot apply 

 fertilizers successfully. 



The first essential is to distinguish 

 between the method of fertilizing uscil 

 by the market-gardener and that of tin- 

 fruit-grower. The market-gardener 

 usually wants to raise a leaf crop, as for 

 instance lettuce, radish, cabbage, cauli- 

 flower and so forth, or a tuber crop, as 

 potatoes, carrots, beets. The fruit- 

 grower, on the other hand, is continually 

 aiming towards the production of fruit, 

 particularly fruit of early maturity. He 



183 



desires to check leaf and wood growth to 

 a great extent and to stimulate the lor- 

 mation of fruit ; the gardener desires 

 to stimulate leaf growth, and does all 

 in his power to do so, and further, his 

 crops are harvested in the green or nn- 

 mature state. 



THE PARTS THEY PLAY 



Let us then look at the part that nitro- 

 gen, phosphoric acid and potash play 

 in plant development. Nitrogen forces 

 particularly leaf and stem growth, and 

 thus induces rankness. Heavy applica- 

 tions late in the growing season, there- 

 fore, will hinder maturity and check 

 development of fruit. The quickest act- 

 ing, most soluble fertilizer containing 

 nitrogen, is nitrate of soda. This 

 material should be applied frequently in 

 small quantities, rather than in one ap- 

 plication, because of the ease with which 

 it is leached from the soil. It can be 

 applied very profitably to lettuce, 

 radishes, celery, etc., in frequent small 

 applications, but care must be taken to 



Pear Tree 



FertiliKsr: Potash, Phosphoric Acid, Nitrogen. 



