122 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



most of the legumes thrive better for it, and every orchard 

 should be able to bear clover. I believe a ton of lime to the 

 acre on land where peaches are to be set, and from 300 to 

 600 pounds a year after the trees begin bearing, will be a 

 fair amount to try, and on apple orchards occasional liming 

 is desirable when the cover crop is not thrifty. 



As to the forms of plant food to be used : Brooks, in 

 Massachusetts, found that the double sulphate of potash and 

 magnesia gave him larger yields and better color and qual- 

 ity of fruit than the muriate of potash. Munsbn, in Maine, 

 as a result of ten years' test, found no specific effect due to 

 the form of potash. The Pennsylvania report finds some- 

 what better results from the use of high-grade sulphate. The 

 question, you see, is not settled. 



There is no question in my mind but that in peach or- 

 chards acid phosphates or a mixture of that with some 

 bone is preferable to any other forms ; though if anyone pre- 

 fers basic slag meal at prices which will make it but little 

 more expensive than the other, I can have no quarrel with 

 him. 



I do quarrel with the statement that Connecticut farm- 

 ers should use ground Tennessee phosphate rock instead of 

 basic slag meal or acid phosphates for supplying phosphates. 

 Phosphoric acid costs us here, as nearly as I can learn, about 

 1^ cents a pound in carloads of ground rock, and a little 

 more than twice as much as acid phosphate. The acid phos- 

 phate has an immediate effect, that of ground rock is very 

 slow. Thorne, whose fertilizer tests are certainly the most 

 valuable contribution we have on the subject, in a ten-year 

 test on corn, wheat, and clover in rotation, where the floats 

 or fine ground rock was given the very best chance to work 

 the land found a larger net value of increase in crop from 

 being well mixed with the yard manure before putting it on 

 acid phosphate than from floats 



On our soils, at present poor in humus, I do not believe 

 that floats can be as economical as acid phosphate or basic 

 slag meal. 



