40 QUIKCE CULTURE. 



rejuvenated by liberal manuring combined with judicious 

 pruning. A feeble or a starved tree, if it bear at all, will 

 only yield small fruit of indifferent quality. As much 

 as ten bushels of salt may be sown on an acre if the soil 

 is good ; but a poor soil will not bear heavy salting with- 

 out injury. 



Many will not be able to secure all the manure they 

 need from common sources, and will of necessity have 

 recourse to chemical fertilizers. To such I would recom- 

 mend ammonia, about three per cent (the sulphate of 

 ammonia may be bought, of twenty-five per cent purity); 

 phosphoric acid, about ten per cent, equal to phosphate 

 of lime twenty per cent ; potash, about twelve per cent, 

 equal to sulphate of potash twenty-two per cent ; salt 

 (chloride of sodium), about ten per cent, and lime five 

 per cent, with about three per cent of magnesia. If 

 they are not in the soil, add a little silica and iron. If 

 the soil is heavy and clayey, the rest of the mixture may 

 be sand or silica. If it is sandy, then muck will be found 

 excellent. If the soil is in good proportions, these va- 

 rious fertilizers may be applied without being mixed, in 

 quantities according to the judgment of the horticul- 

 turist. Full-bearing trees will be benefited by an in- 

 crease in the amount of potash, as the fruit contains a 

 much larger proportion of this than the wood. Decayed 

 vegetable matter, or humus, in the soil acts as a solvent 

 of all its mineral elements to make them available as 

 plant food, especially the potash. Cotton-seed meal, witli 

 the addition of a little phosphoric acid and potash, is 

 a good manure ; but the cost will be considerably re- 

 duced by feeding the meal to cattle and using the 

 manure. 



