88 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



April, 1912 



An Up-to-Date Power Sprayer Well Adapted for Use in Old Orchards 



g= » 



a. ines, last summer the trees thinned 

 fr)m three to five inches produced five 

 hundred and fifty pounds of fruit, while 

 those that were unthinned produced five 

 hundred and fifty-five pounds, but in the 

 latter case there were six thousand 

 peaches and in the former only a little 

 over three thousand ; or in other words, 

 the peaches from the trees that had been 

 thinned were almost twice the size of the 

 others. From the trees that were thin- 

 ned from five to seven inches, we ob- 

 tained four hundred and forty-six pounds 

 of Iruit, but they were all exceptionally 

 large and of excellent quality. 



No safe distance to thin can be recom- 

 mended, but in no case should two 

 peaches be allowed to touch each other 

 unless they are on opposite sides of a 

 fairly large twig. They color and ma- 

 ture mudh better if they do not touch 

 each other. When thinning fruit a man 

 must use his own judgment. If he is in 

 doubt whether the fruit should be taken 

 off or not, he should take it off, because 

 in nearly every case when the trees ap- 

 pear with only half a crop in the early 

 season, later, wlhen the fruit is large and 

 more developed, the trees have all that 

 they can bear. 



What Tests ofComtnercial Fertilizers Have 



Sho^vn 



Professor R. Harcourt, O.A.C., Guelph, Oat. 



(Continued from March issue) 



IT may be stated in a general way, that 

 nitrogen forces leaf and stem growth 

 and tends to delay the ripening 

 process. Phosphoric acid aids in the 

 formation and transportation within the 

 plant of the protein and hastens matur- 

 ity, while potash appears to be essen- 

 tial to the formation and transportation 

 of starches, sugars, and so forth. With 

 many of the crops of the market gar- 

 dener, especially those sold in the im- 

 mature state, quality is dependent upon, 

 or measured by, both appearance and 

 palatability : Palatability is determined 

 by the succulence and sweetness of the 

 vegetable, or by its freedom from bitter- 

 ness, stringiness and other undesirable 

 characteristics which frequently exist. 

 These can be largely eliminated by pro- 

 viding an abundance of food for a con- 

 tinuous and rapid development of the 

 plant. Any delay in the growth of a 

 radish or of lettuce is largely responsible 

 for the sharp taste and pungent flavor 



of the former, and the bitterness and 

 toughened fibre of the latter. For crops 

 of this nature a generous supply of po- 

 tash and phosphoric acid is essential, but 

 nitrogen is the constituent which should 

 predominate. 



WHEN TO USE NITROGEN 



When plants must be allowed to ma- 

 ture, as with the tomato, corn, potato, 

 sugar beets, and so forth, a soluble form 

 of nitrogen, as nitrate of soda, may be 

 used early in the season to insure a good 

 start, but it should be withheld during 

 the latter stages of growth in order that 

 the mineral constituents may have a 

 chance to bring on maturity. 



Big fleshy leaved plants, such as cab- 

 bage, cauliflower, and tobacco, require 

 large quantities of potash. This is also 

 true of such crops as potatoes, mangels, 

 parsnips, and so forth, which store 

 starch or some other form of carbohy- 

 drate in the tubers or roots of the plants. 



Just as plants differ in their food re- 



quirements they also differ in their ability 

 to gather their food. This appears to 

 be due, not only to the time of the year 

 they make most of their growth, the 

 length of the growing period and the 

 depth and range of the roots; but, al.so, 

 to differences in the ability of various 

 plants to attack certain soil constituents. 

 Consequently, a man must study his soil 

 and crops to become familiar with the 

 peculiarities of each and seek to pro- 

 vide in the form of commercial fertilizers 

 that which the particular plant he is 

 dealing with stands in most need. It 

 is because this has not been done that 

 so many people have failed to obtain 

 results from the application of fertilizers. 



EXPERIMENT FIRST 



To become familiar with the needs of 

 the soil, the requirements of the crops, 

 and, at the same time, learn something 

 about the influence of the various con- 

 stituents of plant food on the crops he 

 wishes to grow, it is advisable for the 

 beginner to do some experimenting be- 

 fore he invests heavily in expensive fer- 

 tilizers. Such an experiment may be 

 made on the vegetables with compara- 

 tively small plots, say one-twentieth of 

 an acre, or even smaller, but, where 

 space will allow of it, larger plots are 

 better. The arrangement may be as 

 follows : 



Plot I. 



Check. 



Plot II. 



Nitrate of Boda at rate of 200 Ibe. per acre 



Superphosphate at rate of 600 lbs. per acre 



Muriate ol potash at rate of 200 lbs. per acre 



Plot III. 



Nitrate of soda at rate of 200 lbs. per acre 



Superphosphate at rate of 500 lbs. per acre 



Plot IV. 



Nitrate of soda at rate of 200 lbs. per acre 



Muriate of potash at rate of 200 lbs. per acre 



Plot V. 



Superphoephate at rate of 500 lbs. per acre 



Muriate of potash at rate of 200 lbs. per acre* 



Such an experiment shows the effect 

 of the addition of the three main fer- 

 tilizing constituents, nitrogen, phos- 

 phoric acid, and potash, against no fer- 

 tilizer on the check plot, and as on each 

 of the succeeding plots one of the con- 

 stituents is omitted, a chance to note the 

 effect each ingredient has on the crop. 

 Naturally, the exfjeriment must be plac- 

 ed on soil that is uniform and all the 

 plots must receive the same cultivation. 

 The experiment may be made even more 

 simple by applying the mixture suggest- 

 ed for Plot II. above to one plot and 

 nothing on another. However, such an 

 experiment gives no idea as to whether 

 the soil is deficient in any one constitu- 

 ent. This experiment is one that is al- 

 ways to be used where the complete 

 mixed fertilizers are used, for it is the 

 only way that one can demonstrate whe- 

 ther the fertilizer is really doing any 

 good. 



With reference to the use of fertilizers 

 with fruit crops, we in this country have 

 very little absolute data to quote from. 



