814 THE FKUIT INDUSTKY IN NEW YORK STATE 



field crops the product has a much higher percentage of solids, and 

 the roughage is not usually returned to the soil. These differences 

 in manner of feeding and in the crop taken from the ground 

 largely account, to my mind, for the lack of results in applying 

 fertilizers in orchards, while in adjoining fields, farm crops have 

 abundantly repaid the cost of fertilizing them. 



Almost as barren of results as in the apple orchard are experi- 

 ments carried on with commercial fertilizers for grapes in Chau- 

 tauqua County, the chief grape region of New York, fertilizers 

 having been applied in six vineyards on different soils for five 

 years. The results are confusing, contradictory, and unsatisfac- 

 tory, but from them in well-tilled vineyards only the use of nitro- 

 gen as a commercial fertilizer could be encouraged phosphorus, 

 potassium, and lime being usually wholly or so nearly inert as 

 not to be profitable. 



Seven other experiments, all deciduous tree fruits being in- 

 cluded, are under way in different parts of New Y r ork, the number 

 of seasons for each varying from one to five. It is too early to 

 draw conclusions; but the indications are that nitrogen is most 

 often the limiting factor, that phosphorus is only occasionally 

 needed, and that, in these New York soils, potassium and lime 

 are very seldom needed for fruits. 



What conclusion can be drawn from these several experiments ? 

 To me they indicate that in orchards and vineyards, if well 

 drained, well tilled, and properly supplied by organic matter 

 from stable manure or cover crops, commercial fertilizers are little 

 needed. The exceptions will largely be found on sandy and 

 gravelly soils deficient in potassium and phosphate and very sub- 

 ject to droughts; on soils of such mechanical texture as to limit the 

 root range of the plants ; in soils so wet, so dry, so devoid of humus 

 or so close in texture that soil bacteria do not thrive. These 

 exceptions mean generally that a soil possessing them is unfitted 

 for fruit culture. There may be some orchards now receiving 

 good care and planted on naturally good soils that require addi- 

 tions of one or possibly two of the chief elements of plant food. 

 Few, indeed, require a complete fertilizer. What these special 

 requirements are can only be decided by tests with the several 

 fertilizers, and are probably not ascertainable by soil analysis. 



