Food for That Nitrate spraying of dormant trees will bring 



about an earlier blooming of certain varieties of fruit 



186 is a satisfactorily established fact, which has been dem- 

 onstrated on Yellow Bellflower apples at Watsonville, 

 Cal., and on various varieties of pears at San Jose, San 

 Juan, and Suisun, Cal., during the past season. How 

 generally this statement will apply to other varieties 

 of apples and pears and in other localities remains to 

 be determined. Results on stone fruits have not been 

 as striking as those on pears and apples, but it is pos- 

 sible that stronger solutions, earlier spraying, or a 

 repetition of the spraying in successive years may bring 

 about such results. 



The greater danger of injury from frost that 

 might result from forcing trees into bloom earlier than 

 normal would have to be taken into consideration in 

 making practical use of Nitrate spraying in winter. 



Aside from the effect on crop production, there 

 has also been a very noticeable improvement in the 

 color, abundance, and vigor of the foliage, and it seems 

 possible that Nitrate spraying of dormant trees may 

 be a valuable supplement to the ordinary fertilizer 

 practices in obtaining quick results in orchards suffer- 

 ing from lack of nitrogen. 



The writers will make no attempt at present to 

 explain the peculiar effect of Nitrate of Soda in increas- 

 ing the production of more or less self-sterile varieties of 

 fruits, or in improving foliage growth. The similarity 

 between the writers' results in forcing dormant buds 

 by winter Nitrate spraying and the results obtained by 

 other investigators by treating cuttings with various 

 weak solutions has been mentioned. In experiments 

 of the writers, however, a more or less lasting effect on 

 the vigor of the foliage and also some valuable results 

 in increasing crop production have been obtained. It 

 furthermore appears that the effects obtained by 

 spraying with a solution of Nitrate of Soda may con- 

 tinue over to the second year, as shown by the original 

 plat of 1912, which was left unsprayed in the winter of 

 1913. 



The effects of the Nitrate spraying seem to be pro- 

 portional to the strength of the solution employed and 



