STATE J'O.MOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 39 



I would recoininoiid both the stable manure and the potash and 

 ground bone in addition as the cheapest fertilizer that we can 

 apply to the orchard, for in the stable manure we get a good sup- 

 ply of humus to keep the soil in good mechanical condition. 



O. Mr. Pope, a question, please. Does not phosphoric acid 

 enter largely into the composition of fruit, especially the apple? 



A. Yes, that you would get in the ground bone which I 

 recommended — potash in a large proportion. 



O. You say that in the ash of the apple there is 60% do you 

 not? 



A. Of potash. We have a larger proportion in the apple and 

 in the apple tree of potash than we do when we are growing the 

 cereals and our common farm crops on the average, so that we 

 require in orchard culture a larger proportion of potash than in 

 the ordinary farm crops, and less nitrogen. 



O. Wouldn't you want then, in a fertilizer, quite a large per 

 cent, of phosphoric acid as well as potash ? 



A. I would have enough to keep the trees in good, healthy, 

 growing condition, which you would get in a small amount of 

 stable manure and ground bone with muriate of potash to make 

 up the lack in potash, to give color to your fruit and firmness. If 

 we were so situated, as some parties are, that we could have our 

 waste land pastured with sheep and bring in the fertilizing mate- 

 rial from that part of the farm to the orchard, as Brother 

 DeCoster and Smiley of Vassalboro do, it might be the better 

 way for fertilizing the orchard. We have had perhaps more or 

 less apple orchards where they were too rough to put in the plow, 

 or even where they were quite smooth, where we have let the 

 hogs do the plowing, then spreading on the fertilizer, using the 

 hogs mostly for cultivating and not expecting fertilizing from 

 them but adding to the fertilizer as needed. 



O. In the German ootash salts — I think you have used them 

 to a certain extent — what proportion would there be of potash 

 and of phosphoric acid relatively ? 



A. There would be no phosphoric acid in the potash salts ; 

 that is supplied in the ground bone. That is why we mix, using 

 phosphoric acid with the application of ground bone, the surplus 

 potash in muriate of potash, and what nitrogen we get — we get a 

 small per cent, of nitrogen from the ground bone, making up the 

 rest in stable manure. 



