STATE POJMOLOGICAI, SOCIETY. »9 



the use of man, there is a limit beyond which the tree can not 

 g-o without help. As is well known, tillage, the stirring of the 

 soil, no matter by what means, is the best way to unlock the 

 natural supply of fertilizing material ; and this is the first help 

 which should be given the tree in its struggle — I almost said 

 struggle for existence. While the importance of tillage can not 

 be urged too strongly, this is not all. A check book is a con- 

 venient medium by which to draw money from a bank, but the 

 supply of money in the bank must be replenished from time to 

 time or checks are of little value. 



In studying the methods of fertilizing of orchards, of course 

 we recognize that the same general principles apply as in the 

 management of other farm crops. The essential constituents 

 must be the same, but unlike ordinary farm crops, orchard crops 

 do not give an opportunity for rotation. A certain amount of 

 nitrogen is essential to the vigorous foliage upon which depends 

 the life of the tree. Potash also is important, not only because 

 it constitutes a large part of the ash of the wood of fruit trees, 

 and more than half of the ash of the fruit itself, but also, as 

 suggested by Yoorhees, it forms the base of the well known fruit 

 acids. Lime, as likewise pointed out by Voorhees, " seems to 

 strengthen the stems and woody portion of the tree, and to 

 hasten the time of ripening. Fruit trees growing on soils rich 

 in lime show a stocky, steady, vigorous growth, and the fruit 

 ripens well, while those on soils which contain but little lime, 

 particularly the clays, appear to have an extended period of 

 growth, the result of which is that the wood does not mature 

 and the fruit does not ripen properly." 



Hozv to fertilise a hearing orchard is one of the special lines of 

 investigation with which the Experiment Station has been con- 

 cerned for some years past, and in which every progressive 

 orchardist of the State is interested. 



In 1898 an orchard of eighty trees, Talmans and Graven- 

 steins, on the farm of Charles S. Pope was selected for a com- 

 parative study of the use of stable manure and concentrated 

 fertilizers. One-half of the orchard was cultivated and the 

 remainder was mulched. Careful records of the growth and 

 yields of these trees, as well as of adjacent trees, which received 

 no fertilizer, have been kept from year to year. 



The results obtained up to the close of the growing season of 

 1902, were published in Bulletin 89 of the Experiment Station 



