STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 131 



FERTILIZERS FOR FRUITS. 



An average apple crop of 300 bushels per acre, with the new 

 growth of wood, will take from the soil fourteen p mnds of potash and 

 eighty pounds of phosphoric acid per year. Years of study and 

 experiment persuade me that not less than an annual appl cation 

 per acre of twenty-five pounds of potash with some lime and magnesia 

 is absolutely demanded. The relative proportions of these substances 

 need not vary for other fruits. To meet my demands I have evolved 

 the following formula : 



Cotton seed meal 200 pounds . 



Muriate of potash 140 " 



Nitrate of soda 60 



Sulphate of ammonia 40 " 



Sulphate of magnesia 40 " 



South Carolina fine ground rock (floats) 70 " 



Plaster 70 " 



Total 620 " 



The net cost of these materials at my railroad station last season 

 was $11 per ton. 



— E. Williams, before N. J. State HorticuUural Society. 



SPARE THE BIRDS. 



First and foremost of the orchard and garden helpers is the purple 

 martin. It is the general impression that this bird takes insects 

 only on the wing, but it does more than this. I saw numbers of 

 them the past summer, taking the rose bug from the grape vine. 

 They swooped down and picked them off without alighting. They 

 circled around in companies, back again to this same vine, each one 

 snatching off a bug as they passed. Put up boxes for the martins 

 and see that the English sparrow does not get possession. 



The oriole is another great helper. It knows how to pull the bag 

 worm from its case and does it systematically and rapidly. The tent 

 caterpillar and fall web worm it also has a liking for; it ruth- 

 lessly tears the tents and web to pieces and destroys untold num- 

 bers. Allow no gunner to shoot one of these beautiful, gaily dressed 



