The Canadian Horticulturi^ 



Vol. XXXV 



MARCH, 1912 



No. 3 



Fertilizers For The Fruit Grower 



A. Bonar BaHour, Pilrig Fruit Farm, Port Dalhousic. 



THE maintenance of soil fertility is a 

 problem confronting every fruit 

 grower, which must be worked out 

 by each individually according to the 

 character of his soil and climatic condi- 

 tions. Just as there is no royal road to 

 success, so there is no one treatment 

 suited to all conditions and all soils, like 

 a patent medicine proclaimed to be a 

 cure for all ills. It is true that the same 

 general principles apply, though in their 

 specific application they must be enlarg- 

 ed or modified to meet the varying 

 requirements of the soil and plants that 

 are to be benefited. 



POINTS TO CONSIDER 



In the application of fertilizing mater- 

 ial to our soil we must bear in mind that 

 it is not only the mere supplying of a 

 plant constituent supposed to be lacking 

 in the same, but also the influence that 

 such material may have on the soil and its 

 properties, and on the nature and growth 

 of the plants to be benefited. For in- 

 stance, we are commonly offered potash 

 salts on our market in three forms, the 

 high grade sulphate, and the lower 

 grades of muriate and kainit. The mur- 

 iate and kainit both contain chlorine, 

 and the chlorides have a deleterious in- 

 fli:< nee on certain plants, bei.ifl^ verv 

 soluble, however, and soon washed awav, 

 their deleterious effects may in a measure 



be circumvented by applying these lertili- 

 zers some time before planting ; but this 

 we cannot do in the case of our orchards. 

 I do not mean to say that the chlorides 

 are harmful to our trees and bush fruits 

 but it is as well to take this into consid- 

 eration in the purchase of a potash lei- 

 tilizer. It may be a better economy to 

 purchase the more expensive sulphat;, 

 the combined sulphur of which is bene- 

 ficial, to the purchasing of the somewhat 

 cheaper chlorides, the effects of which 

 are doubtful. 



BONE FERTIUZERS 



In the case of bone we are usually of- 

 fered this in two forms : the steamed and 

 crushed, and the dissolved. When 

 steamed to extract the fatty matter which 

 makes it less readily soluble in the soil, 

 crushed and applied to the soil, it readily 

 putrefies. Being in an intimate mixture 

 with the soil particles this putrefaction 

 acts on these and assists in transforming 

 the inert matter to a suitable form for 

 assimilation by plants. Bone in this 

 form contains as well. as the phosphate 

 a percentage of nitrogen in a form that 

 is valuable in the orchard, but treat it 

 with sulphuric acid and you destroy this 

 property and lose the greater part of 

 your nitrogen. It is true that you have 

 made your potash more readily available 

 but a dissolved phosphate of lime is 



equally valuable from whatever source it 

 may be obtained. It is, therefore, ques- 

 tionable economy to obtain it from the 

 more expensive bone rather than from 

 the cheaper mineral. Then, too, when 

 we bear in mind that the economical use 

 of a fertilizer requires that it merely sup- 

 plement the natural supply in the soil, 

 and that the soil itself must supply the 

 greater part of the plant requirements, 

 we will readily see that any material 

 which is not only in itself a plant food 

 but also aids in unlocking the natural 

 supply in the soil, returns us the greater 

 value. 



FARM YARD MANURE NOT A NECESSITY 



The efficiency of farm yard manure is 

 largely due to the important physical ef- 

 fects it produces in the soil. It helps to 

 make a clay soil more loose, and when 

 well rotted it imparts to a sandy soil the 

 property of retaining moisture. It is 

 also friendly to bacterial activity, but the 

 same may be said of green manures, and 

 those of the legume family have the ad- 

 ditional advantage of adding nitrogen 

 to the soil. Over and above this, green 

 manures are the cover crops of our or- 

 chards, so that they serve the double 

 purpose of a cover crop and when plowed 

 in add to the humus contents in our soil, 

 making it mechanically fitted to obtain 

 the best results from commercial fertili- 



_ Apple* from all the Fruit Growing Province* of Cinada and from the United States a* shown at the recent Dominion Fruit Conference, Ottawa. 



The frnit on the left wa« from Oreeon, British Columbia and Ontario, in the centre from Quebec and on the ri^ht from the Maritime proTincoa. 

 Notice that the fruit from the east waa just as well colorc>d as the fruit from the weet. Imacine what a grand display would be brought out b; 

 the holding of a National Apple Show here in the east. 



