FERTILIZING ORCHARDS. 



which is found in muck in varying 

 quantities ; and by the addition of the 

 dissolved bone and ashes you add an 

 ingredient very rich in phosphoric acid 

 and potash beside some nitrogen, all of 

 which is mostly available as plant food 

 as soon as applied to the soil. 



Every farmer and fruit grower should 

 have a bone barrel or box where all 

 bones should be put, and one will be 

 surprised at the quantity they will col- 

 lect in a short time. When a bushel or 

 two have been collected and you have a 

 spare hour or two for one of the boys, 

 have him break them up in small pieces, 

 which is very easily done by holding 

 them over an old anvil or heavy piece 

 of iron, and breaking them with a two 

 pound hammer. Now take a sugar or 

 flour barrel and put in a layer of fresh 

 dry ashes (those made from elm wood 

 are preferable), put a thin layer of 

 broken bone on top of the ashes, filling 

 the spaces between the bone with ashes 

 shaken in, then bone and ashes, finish- 

 ing off with a thick layer of ashes. 

 When your barrel is full pour on water 

 enough to dampen the whole, being 

 careful not to leach any off, and in a 

 short time the mixture will begin to heat 

 and in a few weeks you can put a spade 

 through the mixture, the bone having 

 all become as soft as cheese. Now by 

 packing the bones as fast as collected, 

 one is able to keep a stock of dissolved 

 bone on hand for use when required. 



Now to those who have not got the 

 necessary material at hand to prepare 

 their own compost heap, and have to 

 depend upon commercial fertilizers, it 

 is not necessary to go to the expense of 

 buying so-called complete fertilizers, but 

 rather buy your phosphoric acid and 

 potash, and grow clover to supply 

 nitrogen. 



Three or four hundred pounds of 

 Thomas' Phosphate powder, loo hun- 



dred pounds muriate of potash, and 20 

 pounds crimson clover per acre, or 200 

 pounds pure ground bone, 100 pounds 

 muriate potash, and 20 pounds clover 

 sown about the ist of August, the ground 

 being kept in a perfect state of cultiva- 

 up to that date, and cultivation com- 

 menctng again early in the spring, and 

 repeating annually gives the necessary 

 potash and phosphoric acid and the 

 clover the nitrogen and humus. 



Now that we have supplied the ele- 

 ments to the soil necessary for the 

 growth of our trees, we must not con- 

 sider our work complete, for we have 

 still the carbon to consider. About one 

 half dry weight of vegetable matter con- 

 sists of carbon, and it is almost wholly 

 obtained from the carbonic acid that 

 in the air, only a small portion possibly 

 in the form of carbon dioxide present 

 in the condition of humus, being at the 

 disposition of the tree as plant food 

 rom the soil ; thus the principal source 

 of carbon comes from the atmosphere 

 and is obtained by the tree through the 

 leaf pores, breathing pores, or stomata 

 with which the mature leaf is provided 

 in vast numbers. By means of these the 

 inter-cellular spaces in the interior of the 

 leaf are brought into direct communica- 

 tion with the outer atmosphere where 

 the mineral matters, nitrates, etc., 

 brought from the soil by the action of 

 the sap, combine with the carbon from 

 the air, and, after the chemical combina- 

 tion of the elements has taken place in 

 the leaf, it passes back through the tree, 

 building up the cell tissue and forming 

 new wood, buds, bark^ and leaves. 3 

 .^In the air there is somewhat less than 

 one part by volume of carbonic acid 

 gas to 3,000 parts of air (oxygen and 

 nitrogen) so it is very necessary to the 

 healthy development of a tree that it has 

 an abundance of foliage, and that the 

 same is kept in a healthy condition with 

 37 



