21 



A MEiMBER : I would like to ask the gentlemen on our 

 right if I understood him to say that those trees had been 

 cut back to al)out four buds a year? 



]\IR. MAINLAND: Yes, I had them pruned regularly 

 since they were set out, to about four buds of the previous 

 season's groAvth. 



A ]\IE:\rBER: 1 think if you stop cutting them back, 

 they won't grow so much. 



MR. MAINLAND : I think that is likely, but 1 was lim- 

 ited for space and did not want them to grow too large. 



A ]\IE]\IBER: I would like to ask the speaker about us- 

 ing some other fertilizer besides nitrogen, whether other 

 fertilizers than nitrogen are necessary for the bearing or- 

 chard. 



MR. CONANT : That is a big question ; I use a balanced 

 fertilizer, try to balance it as near as I can, using phosphoric 

 acid and potash, but I have been speaking of its being 

 necessary to control the nitrogen, the other elements are 

 harmless as affecting the excessive wood growth. Nitrogen 

 is the element we must train or control, the others will do 

 no harm. I doubt if you could get an all aroifnd fertilizer 

 without some potash or phosphoric acid. However, I think 

 we will have to get l)y the coming season as we are not plan- 

 ning to use much of any potash. 



A IMEMBER : I would like to ask what your idea is 

 about using basic slag. 



:\rR. CONANT : I never have, although I have had an 

 opportunity to observe some results with basic slag, I must 

 say that it is not altogether satisfactory to me for this reas- 

 on, that not many of our orchards need any lime, and quite 

 a percent, of basic slag is free lime and we can get our 

 phosphoric acid at a lower price in the form of acid phos- 

 phate than we can by buying it in slag. Another thing, the 

 phosphoric acid that we get in acid phosphate is more 

 ({uickly available than that in the form of basic slag, and 

 for those reasons I never have advocated basic slag as an 

 orchard fertilizer. It may, in rare cases, be just what an 



