The .sliortage of potash makes this question a cliiTieuIt 

 ©ne for us to solve. Potash is almost indispensable and the 

 scarcity of it is very unfortunate for the fruit growers. 



Lime is also very beneficial iu most apple orchards, and 

 a liberal application of it should be applied at least every 

 three or four years. Stable manure may also be used to a 

 very good advantage. 



The orchards in which a liberal supply of potash had 

 been used while it was plentiful have a considerable advan- 

 tage over those where it was used sparingly or not all, pripr 

 ±0 the shortage of it. 



As long as we were able to get potash we used acid 

 phosphate, bone meal and muriate of potash equal parts, 

 applied at the rate of one half ton per acre, on old trees. 

 When we were unable to get our supply of potash, Dr. Lip- 

 man, Director of our Experiment Station, suggested to me 

 that I use 200 pounds of agricultural salt per acre, mixed 

 with the acid phosphate and bone meal, which has worked 

 out very nicely for me so far. My orchards having had con- 

 siderable potash, it was thought there was still a surplus 

 there and the object of using all the salt was to make it 

 available. 



The apple orchard does not require a fertilizer that 

 acts too quickl}^; on the other hand, it should have one 

 which acts rather slowly, and especially toward the close of 

 the season when the fruit is ripening. 



The fertilizer is sowed broadcast as soon as the ground 

 is worked up nicely, and we are reasonably certain of a 

 crop of fruit probably about the 10th or 15th of May. In 

 addition to the fertilizer we use all the wood ashes we can 

 ■get from tlie saw mills located in our neighborhood. 



THINNING 

 The thinning of apples is an absolute necessity if the 

 •owner of the orchard expects annual crops of large, fine 

 fruit such as commands a premium in the large mark(4.s of 

 the East, 



