April, 1916. 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



»7 



the most successful grower of hiprli 

 grade fruit, but have no ability at all 

 as a salesman, and this is usually the 

 case. It takes no ability to accept the 

 first offer that happens along; any fool 

 can give his property away. The man 

 who puts his whole time, thought and 

 energy into_the production of a crop, 

 has no time to study market conditions 

 1 and transportation and distribution 

 problems. 



"When Benjamin/ Franklin told his 

 fellow-signers of the Declaration of In- 



dependence that they must hang to- 

 gether, or they would surely hang 

 singly, he uttered a warning which 

 seems pretty well suited to present day 

 conditions confronting the farmers and 

 fruit growei*s of this country. The old 

 adage "In Union there is Strength," 

 was never more self-evident than it is 

 to-day; every other business in the 

 country has adopted the plan of com- 

 bining interests, but the farmer and 

 fruit grower continues to permit him- 

 self to be used as a foot-ball to be kicked 



about by every conscienceless specu- 

 lator that comes along; continues to go 

 through life asking two questions: 

 "How much is it?" and "How much 

 will you give me?" letting someone else 

 set the price on everything that he sells 

 and everything that he buys. 



The individual grower is helpless in 

 the battle of to-day. 



Methods that were good enough for 

 our grandfathers will no longer answer 

 — this is a progressive age and times 

 have changed. 



Orchard Fertilization 



SINCE our fertilizer supply is being 

 shut off, owing to the war, it 

 seems desirable that we should 

 modify our orchard practices in order 

 to meet conditions as they exist. With 

 an unlimited supply of potash at a 

 reasonable rate we have had little need 

 to worry about the potash require- 

 ments of our orchards; in fact, in 

 many cases probably more potash than 

 actually necessarj' has been used in 

 the past. This, however, does not say 

 that we can do without this element in 

 the years to come. The hope is that 

 the shortage in this fertilizer is only 

 temporary. Nitrogen also has in the 

 past been reasonable as compared with 

 present prices of seventv dollars per 

 ton for nitrate of soda, which last year 

 cost us only fifty dollars. The various 

 phosphatic fertilizers have also ad- 

 vanced. 



An acre of apples producing one 

 hundred barrels, according to analysis, 

 will take from the soil approximately 

 as much nitrogen and phosphorus as an 

 acre of wheat producing fifteen bush- 

 els, and about three times as much 

 potash. 



Prof. W. S. Blair, Kentville, N.S. 



we are making the best use of the 

 means at our disposal to obtain all of 

 this element we can from the air by 

 growing leguminous orchard cover 

 crops. An analysis of the various 

 cover crops in their green state gives 

 a comparative idea of their fertilizing 

 constituents. 



>3 



Nitrogen 



Phosphoric Acid 

 Potash 



.64 

 .14 



.47 



It will be noticed that according to 

 this the crops run fairly uniform in 

 tlieir green state. 



Experiments conducted at Ottawa 

 give the following comparative values 

 of the different leguminous cover crops 

 seeded July 13th and collected Octo- 

 ber 20th : 



Weight of Nitrogen 



crops per per 



acre. acre, 

 tons. lbs. 

 Mam. Red Clover steons 



and leaves 6 1,319 82 



Mam. Red Clover roots. . . 3 1,200 48 



Total 10 670 130 



Common Red Clover stems 



and leaves 4 1,779 70 



Common Red Clover roots. 2 1,445 47 



Total 7 1,224 117 



Crimson Clover stems and 



leaves 11 234 86 



Crimson Clover roots 3 201 19 



Total 14 435 ~io4 



Hairy Vetch stems and 



leaves 11 1,895 129 



Hairy Vetch roots 2 346 18 



Total 14 240 ~147 



The common vetch was not grown 

 for comparison in this test, but the 

 chances are that it will compare hardly 

 as favorably as the hairy vetch, but 

 better than crimson clover. 



That the turning under of such a 

 cover crop does supply a large amount 

 of nitrogen, which is taken from the 

 air, is shown by tests conducted by 

 following grain on land which had 



Nitrogen 



Phosphoric Acid 



~ itash 



.65 



Apples. Wheat. 

 .45 .43 .41 



71,4 10 



45% 16 



Experiments have shown that a fer- 

 I tilizer carrying thirty pounds nitro- 

 ' sren, fifty pounds phosphoric acid and 

 fifty pounds potash should be furnish- 

 '1 to a full bearing orchard annually, 

 vvill be noticed that the phosphoric 

 acid called for is much in exce-ss of 

 the amount the plant requires accord- 

 ing to analysis, but in actual practice 

 it is found that plants generally re- 

 quire an amount of phosphorus in ex- 

 cess of that called for from a chemical 

 analysis of the product grown. 



Considering the fact that nitrogen is 

 one of the most important fertilizing 

 •elements, it is well for us to see that 



•Extract from a paper read at the last an- 

 flK2L«,".?"nilii?"». "' *^^ ^°^* Scotia Prult A flve-year-.,)d .vi, i,,i„.-,h u.-,- in the Glenburn drchards of W. A. Fraser. Trenton. Ont. which 

 «»rwwers Association. b<,re a bushel of apples. 



lii' 



