TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 



103 



profitably increase the yield, while thorough tillage and cover 

 crops did. 



Please note particularly that eleven years of very care- 

 ful oljservation and very decisive results do not lead a care- 

 ful man to say : "Fertilizing an orchard is money thrown 

 away; I've tried it and I know. Don't you do it." That is easy 

 advice. It sounds like "hard sense." There are none of those 

 "ifs" and "huts" which plague a man who is looking for a 

 sure way or a sure thing. "But on my orchard," says the writ- 

 er, "it does not pay at present to use ashes and phosphate. It 

 needs tillage or nitrogen, or both, and I cannot decide which 

 it needs or needs more. But I think there may be many or- 

 chards like mine and that it will pay growers, before using 

 phosphates and potash every year on the whole orchard T to 

 prove themselves whether these things are necessary." He 

 suggests a way to do this which is worth our while to con- 

 sider. 



Take for each test at least five trees of the same variety 

 and age, broadcasting the fertilizers under each tree and a 

 little further than the spread of the branches. 



To each tree of the first block apply 400 pounds stable 

 manure. 



To each tree of the second block apply thirteen pounds 

 acid phosphate. 



To each tree of the third block apply 8 pounds muriate 

 of potash. 



To each tree of the fourth block apply the combined ap- 

 plications of two and three. 



To each tree of the fifth block apply the combined appli- 

 cations of 1.2 and 3, or what I should prefer, substitute for 

 the manure, 3.67 pounds nitrate of soda. 



To each tree of the sixth block apply nothing. 



To each tree of the seventh block apply 25 pounds of 

 quick lime per tree. 



In this way you compare dressings of 50 pounds of ni- 

 trogen per acre, 50 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 100 

 pounds of potash, and various combinations of these. 



