plat. The tree is still in normal condition and shows Food for 



no noticeable effect from the heavy fertilizing. The ans . 



orchard is not irrigated, and the rainfall has been J 79 

 much less than normal during the last two years. 



Attention might again be called to the conditions 

 under which these results were obtained namely, 

 thrifty-growing trees in a deep residual soil and having 

 the characteristic of blooming abundantly each year 

 but setting only a shy crop. Even the 40 boxes pro- 

 duced by the Nitrate spraying does not represent the 

 full crop that such trees should bear, but the fourfold 

 increase much more than paid for the cost of spraying, 

 and the possibility remains of still further increasing 

 that production by similar treatment in following years. 



Experiments in 1913 



The one small experiment on seven trees in 1912 

 did not furnish sufficient grounds for drawing any gen- 

 eral conclusions as to the applicability of winter Nitrate 

 spraying, but the striking results obtained opened a 

 wide field of inquiry. For instance, potash lye was 

 added to the solution of Nitrate of Soda in the experi- 

 ment of 1912, so the questions arise as to whether the 

 lye was necessary and whether an acid medium would 

 increase or decrease the effect of the Nitrate of Soda; 

 also, would a weaker Nitrate solution prove as effective 

 and would other nitrogen-bearing fertilizer materials, 

 such as lime Nitrate, lime cyanamid, and sulphate of 

 ammonia, give similar results? Following along this 

 line it would be interesting to know what effect, if any, 

 the other fertilizer elements, potash and phosphoric 

 acid, might have when applied as sprays, and finally, 

 what results might be obtained from a similar applica- 

 tion of other substances not ordinarily considered as 

 having any particular fertilizer value. 



Experiments intended to answer these and a num- 

 ber of other more or less important questions were 

 started in February, 1913, in the same orchard in which 

 the previous year's work was done. Eleven 13-year- 

 old trees were used in each plat. A frost occurred at 

 the time the fruit was setting which ruined the crop 

 and made it impossible to obtain results in crop pro- 



