314 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



Still, the evidence is that trees and vines, like other plants, need a proper pro- 

 portion of all the leading forms of plant food usually deficient in many 

 soils. The same question arises in the fertilzation of fruit trees and grape 

 vines as with the annual crops. How shall we accomplish their feeding in the 

 best and most economical manner, and what forms of plant food are most 

 generally needed by orchard and vineyard products ? We think that our ex- 

 perience has taught us something in this regard. 



FEEDING THE APPLE ORCHARD. 



A study of the tables in the appendix to this book will show that in the 

 leaves of the apple and the whole structure of the tree, the chief needs are 

 nitrogen and potash, while in the fruit potash takes the lead, and phosphoric 

 acid cuts a small figure. The complaint is general in most parts of the 

 country, that apples do not grow as they formerly did. Men keep an apple 

 orchard and make a hay field or a pasture of it, and expect the soil to continue 

 to give them fruit while in every crop they are taking away from the soil the 

 plant food the trees need. It is easy to convince farmers of the need for using 

 fertilizers on their wheat, oats and corn crops, but most of them seem to im- 

 agine that an apple tree does not need feeding, but can take care of itself 

 like the trees of the forest. The great reason for the failure of apples where 

 they once did well is the depletion of the soil of the mineral matters which the 

 trees need. 



A crop of apples of fair proportions will remove more potash from the 

 soil than three good crops of wheat. No farmer would be surprised that 

 wheat finally fails to grow on land receiving no fertilizer, but the idea of ap- 

 plying fertilizers to apple trees never seems to occur to them. There are 

 endless theories in regard to the proper method of planting, pruning and feed- 

 ing apple trees. Some prominent authorities insist that deep plowing during 

 the whole of the tree's existence is essential to succcess, and point to the old 

 apple orchards in sod as examples of bad treatment. To some extent they are 

 right, for the common method of keeping orchards in sod for the purpose of 

 pasturage or mowing hay from them is certainly an evil practice. But there 

 is a right way and a wrong way of keeping trees in sod, as we will endeavor 

 to show. 



PLANTING AN APPLE ORCHARD. 



The most common mistake made at the start is in planting trees too old. 

 Nurserymen commonly root-graft apples in winter, and set them in nursery 

 rows in the spring. The first season's growth in the nursery is a tall, straight 



