APPLE ORCHARD SURVEY OF NIAGARA COUNTY. 



293 



drainage than with poor drainage. Now if it pays to have good drainage 

 on the whole area of an orchard, it should pay equally well to drain 

 any part that needs it. It is frequently these locally bad areas that 

 determine the profit, for such sections receive as much care in tilling, 

 spraying, and pruning but they give little or no return in crops. 



Another feature shown by the table is the small proportion of orchards 

 which are given artificial drainage ; and still another is the number of 

 acres of trees killed or damaged through failure to provide good drain- 

 age. It becomes clear, that little attention is given to soil drainage.* 



IV. DRAINAGE 



FERTILIZATION 



In recent years, the orchards in the county have been very sparingly 

 fertilized. No figures were gathered regarding the use of fertilizers 

 previous to 1900, but since that date about eighty in every one hundred 

 orchards have been enriched in some way. But this estimate, though 

 accurate, is almost misleading, for any orchard that has received any 

 fertilizer whatsoever, and even in very small quantities and at very 

 infrequent intervals, has been classed as an enriched orchard. Many 

 farmers do not apply manure oftener than once in six years, and rather 

 a large number plan to cover orchard land once in ten years. Yet 

 variable as the custom is, it has been found that of 622 orchards surveyed 

 484, or 77.8 per cent, have received some fertilizing material, and 138, or 

 22.2 per cent, have never received any. 



Barnyard manure has been used most largely; this is followed by 

 green-manuring with cover-crops, while commercial fertilizers rank third 



*An instructive discussion of drainage is found in Bui. 254, Cornell University 

 Exp. Station. 



