IN THE ORCHARD. 



427 



if fruit will not pay to buy fertilizer for, we 

 had better dig up our trees by the roots and 

 plant something else. 



TRY LUCERNE CLOVER. 



The next question would be, " What shall 

 we use ?" • Those who are situated near 

 towns can buy stable manure, but for the 

 majority of farmers this is impracticable. 

 Even in favorable cases it is doubtful if for 

 larg« fruit it will pay for the reasons given 

 above. In some cases, as with small fruits, 

 poor land, or wnere a proper system has not 

 been followed, it may be desirable for a time 

 to use stable manures, but the successful 

 farmer must get his nitrogen cheaper than 

 paying 12 to 16 cents a pound for it, and he 

 can obtain it for nothing by means of a 

 leguminous cover crop. Of all the differ- 

 ent crops advocated, I believe Lucerne 

 clover to be the best, as it will make a better 

 growth in the dry weather, which we usually 

 have in the fall, and also a better root 

 growth than the common red clover, which 

 is favorably known for this purpose. Lu- 

 cerne is subject to being winter-killed, but 

 this makes little difference w*here it is sown 

 to be plowed under in the spring. The 

 hairy vetch is also" highly recommended for 

 this purpose. Don't sow too early in the 

 season. Remember that it is a full apple 

 barrel rather than a luxuriant cover crop 

 which is wanted. I believe that in dry sea- 

 sons the fruit grower loses an enormous 

 amount by stopping the cultivator too soon, 

 and as a rule cover crops should be sown a 

 month later than usually advised. Never 

 sow a cover crop until you feel sure that the 

 apples are safe, even in case no rain comes 

 until picking time. This system might not 

 produce such a fine cover crop, but will pro- 

 duce more apples. 



Leguminous cover crops will provide 

 all the nitrogen necessary, but something 

 else is required or we will ruin our fruit 

 crop through unbalanced feeding. I firmly 

 believe that the popularity of cover crops, 



together with the use of stable manure, has 

 had much to do with the cry that Canadian 

 apples are not keeping as well as they did in 

 former years. We all know that an exces- 

 sive amount of stable manure will grow a 

 large, pale, soft apple, lacking in color, 

 flavor, long-keeping qualities, and that in- 

 describable element often called " snap," for 

 which Canadian apples are noted. I know 

 for a fact that dealers are Beginning to keep 

 records in order to find where the poor 

 keeping apples come from. Thus we see 

 we can provide ourselves with an abundant 

 supply of nitrogen and humus, but we can 

 not get in that way the potash and phos- 

 phoric acid which are also needed. 



USE COMMON SENSE. 



Experiment stations recommend a ferti- 

 lizer containing 2 per cent, of nitrogen, 9 

 per cent, of potash, and 2 per cent, of phos- 

 phoric acid, but if a proper system of cover 

 crops is followed I think we can leave out 

 the nitrogen and use potash and phosphoric 

 acid in above proportions. In order to ob- 

 tain these materials " common sense " would 

 teach us to use our own waste matters, that 

 is, bone meal and wood ashes, which at 

 present we ship across to the United States 

 to improve the quality of their fruit. In 

 bone meal the steamed will be found more 

 economical than the raw, being less in price 

 and having a higher percentage of phos- 

 phoric acid, though lower in nitrogen, 

 which is no detriment in a properly man- 

 aged orchard. 



For the potash we should use the ashes 

 produced at the farm, and in addition there- 

 to the commercial potash salts, particularly 

 sulphate and muriate of potash, which are 

 very high grade, containing 50 per. cent, of 

 pure potash, while ashes contain only 5 per 

 cent, on an average. Weight for weight, 

 the potash salts mentioned are worth five 

 times the value of aShes, and as a commer- 

 cial article the former are usually a more 

 economical source of potash than the ashes. 



