ON PRACTICAL PLANS 
chard. This has been found to be an extremely 
profitable method both in the old neglected and 
in the new orchards of New England and in the 
orchards of the northwestern Pacific coast. A 
small space about the trunk of the tree should be 
kept free from grass. 
The experts of the Indiana Experiment Station 
recommend as a fertilizer, for soil of fair natural 
fertility and where a leguminous nitrogen-gather- 
ing cover crop such as just suggested may be 
grown, the additional use of a fertilizer having the 
following formula: “A thousand to fifteen hundred 
pounds per acre of a mixture containing one part 
(100 pounds) each of ground bone, acid phosphate 
and muriate of potash. On soils that are some- 
what exhausted, 125 pounds nitrate of soda may 
be added in addition. 
“In order to get the greatest returns from this 
fertilizer it should be thoroughly worked into the 
soil. This can be accomplished very well by ap- 
plying it to the surface just before plowing. The 
plowing and working of the ground will get the 
fertilizer pretty thoroughly incorporated, and the 
tree will soon show the beneficial effect of its pres- 
ence. Hoe the ground often and keep it cultivated 
until midsummer, then sow a cover crop that will 
protect the ground until it is turned under the fol- 
lowing spring.” 
[49] 
