230 



fruit grower recognizes the disadvantage as well as the ad- 

 vantage accruing from the use of readily available nitro- 

 genous fertilizers, so that we have to watch our trees care- 

 fully. I remember one peach grower said to me, '-'One year 

 we used as much as four hundred pounds of nitrate of soda 

 per acre and got aAvay with it, but I don't expect that we 

 can get away with four hundred pounds of nitrate of soda 

 in the average season, but we had a very heavy set of fruit 

 and seasonal conditions were such as to warrant the appli- 

 cation." That is the reason peach growers prefer to wait 

 tdl spring Avith their nitrate of soda, and if there is no fruit 

 it is hardly worth while to waste a great deal of money on 

 nitrogen. Tf the set of fruit is heavy, you would use more 

 nitrogen, but you would use nitrogen for both the fruit and 

 for the trees, understanding the limitations of nitrogen. 



ME. WHARTON : I have been told that old sawdust is 

 good to mulch trees with. 



PROFESSOR LIPMAN: Yes, I should answer in the 

 affirmative, with the qualification that, like straw, excessive 

 quantities of sawdust are apt to cause injury to vegetation. 

 There is a certain proportion of soluble vegetable material 

 in sawdust, as there is in straAv, and if your mulch is very 

 heavy, there is some danger, especially on a lighter soil,, 

 but everything being equal, the heavier your land the great- 

 er the amount of sawdust you could use with safety ; the 

 lighter the soil, the more careful you should be in using 

 sawdust; but even on light land, you could use moderate 

 amounts of it with profit. 



MR. WASHBURN: For young trees in the sod and cul- 

 ture of the pasture, where manure is not available, -w^hac 

 would you recommend for young trees not bearing? 



PROB^ESSOR LIPMAN: If the orchard is young and 

 the moisture supply in the soil is very good, I should prefer 

 to top dress the grass or broad -cast in the orchard readily 

 available nitrogen, either nitrate or sulphate of ammonia 

 with some availal)le phosphoric acid, and then cut the grass 

 to give the mulch. That might be the most feasible wa}^, 



