84 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



year ago, he showed me a Baldwin tree that he had thinned. 

 This year I was in the same orchard and my attention was called 

 to the same tree which was well loaded with good fruit. 



I have made it a point to visit some of onr most successful 

 fruit growers and to ascertain what they are doing for their 

 fruit trees and what results have followed. I wish to say here 

 that I am not advertising or recommending any special fertilizer. 

 During the fall I visited Mr. W. O. Breed's orchard in Harri- 

 son. He believes Maine is to become a great fruit State. In 

 going through his orchard I found it full of swine and they had 

 worked over nearly the whole of it. When I asked Mr. Breed 

 if he used any commercial fertilizers he said, " Yes, though I did 

 not do it last year but had I done so it would have added $500 

 to my fruit crop this year. The year before I raised 1,600 

 barrels." We should realize that the tree must be fed the year 

 before to grow and set fruit buds for the following year. His 

 crop this year was about 500 barrels. He is making quite a 

 success of growing peaches and picked five bushels from one 

 tree this year. He uses a commercial fertilizer made from the 

 Fislier formula which is as follows : 



Nitrate of soda, 350 pounds, 



Sulphate of ammonia, 150 pounds, 



Sulphate of potash, 230 pounds, 



Acid phosphate, 220 pounds, 



Keiserite, 50 pounds. 

 The manufacturers as yet have not made the fertilizers and 

 hence it has been necessary to buy the ingredients as above and 

 mix them by hand with hoe or shovel. It is not a difficult task. 

 The screened nitrate of soda works better than when taken from 

 original packages, as it is finer and mixes without leaving 

 lumps. 



Mr. S. H. Dawes, who has the enviable reputation of raising 

 more prize fruit than any man in Maine, owns the adjoining 

 farm and I called upon him. He was busy gathering pears and 

 such pears it would almost take a cantdog to handle them. He 

 had a large crop of pears. He had just harvested 65 bushels 

 of plums. He has raised the past two years large crops and it 

 was too much for the trees. It has been his custom to fertilize 

 only the fruit-bearing trees which I think was a mistake. He 

 showed me one row of Baldwin trees which he had fertilized 

 every year and there was a marked difiference. From that row 



