168 THE APPLE CULTURIST. 



apple-trees, the more scrapings of the manure-yards, the 

 more chip-dust, the more fish, flesh, and bones of dead ani- 

 mals, the more of leather-shavings and hide-clippings, horn 

 piths and hoofs, hair and old plaster, and all such articles, 

 the better it will be for the growing trees. Apple-pomace, 

 spread say one inch thick around a large tree, will be found 

 a good manure, especially for old trees. If applied too 

 bountifully, pomace will kill all vegetation, and the roots of 

 the apple-trees. My father was accustomed to spread pom- 

 ,ace about three inches thick over Canada thistles and el- 

 der bushes ; and that thin top-dressing would destroy every, 

 root of every plant no matter what it was clear down 

 through the subsoil. Of course, if pomace be applied too 

 bountifully, it will kill the roots of apple-trees. 



Garbage for Apple-trees. Many of our most successful 

 pomologists believe that there is no danger of applying too 

 much manure to bearing trees. Their fruit shows that 

 such a theory is correct, provided fertilizing material of 

 the required kind is employed. Many families in cities, 

 villages, and even in the country, cast away enough fertil- 

 izing material in jone year to equal the manurial value of 

 several tons of the best Peruvian guano, which is sold to 

 tillers of the soil for about eighty dollars per ton. Many a 

 family throws out at the back door a sufficient quantity of 

 garbage from the kitchen consisting of apple-peelings, po- 

 tato-peelings, bits of meat and bread, fragments of bones, 

 feathers of fowls, and soap-suds to produce all the fruit 

 or vegetables that the same family would consume, if such 

 material were properly applied to the soil. Many families 

 cast into the garbage-barrel more than five pounds of pieces 

 of bread, meat, and bones every day, every pound of which 

 is more valuable as a fertilizer of the soil than a pound 

 of guano. Other families waste several barrels of soap an- 

 nually, every gallon of which is of more value to spread 



