NINETEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 55 



Mr. Drew : While I am not here to advertise any par- 

 ticular product, I think it is a good thing. I think the Ex- 

 periment Stations would tell you that it is a good thing. Of 

 course, Thomas phosphate powder will analyze a large pro- 

 portion of lime, and I think about seventeen to nineteen per 

 cent of phosphoric acid. That is valuable. Some people 

 raise the question whether the benefit of the slag was not 

 entirely for the lime which it contains. I have used it for 

 four or five years. For the first two or three years I did 

 not say anything one way or the other, but after having tried 

 it out pretty well I am thoroughly convinced myself that it 

 is a good thing, not only for the phosphoric acid and the 

 lime which it has, but I think it exerts a beneficial influence 1 

 on the formation of fruit buds. Wherever I have used it, 

 I have had my trees just loaded with fruit buds, and that 

 applies not only to peaches, but to apples. 



Question : I would like to ask you how you think it 

 might work in the case of a great many orchards that are 

 growing in the sod, — whether you think the basic slag would 

 be as effective. 



Mr. Drew : I do not see any reason why it would not. 



Question : I have seen it stated somewhere that it 

 would not be so effective as when cultivated in. 



Mr. Drew : I do not see any reason why it should noc 

 be so. I do not see any reason why it should not work just 

 as vigorously that way as it should where it is in cultivation. 



Question : Do you have any trouble where you cut 

 back those trees, where you cut so heavily that you thin out 

 those suckers after the first summer? 



Mr. Drew: If I get your question, there is a little. I 

 have had but little trouble, though. I have got some trees 

 down in Greenwich where I have cut back to four or five 

 feet from the main stumps, and I have got some nice heads 

 started. Quite a number of the people here in the audience 

 have seen them. Those trees had but very little trouble on 



