STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 8l 



that are not so good as these. But you see barnyard manure 

 is simply a complete fertilizer, plus a mulch. When you are 

 putting on a barnyard manure, you are putting on a moisture 

 conserver. Now, especially in the case of a young tree, moist- 

 ure is wsually the prime thing, so that it is generally better, in 

 the case of young trees, to put a mulch of manure around 

 them, than anything else you could do, because the manure 

 will give them a certain amount of plant food, and much better, 

 it will conserve moisture. But even though we were to prove 

 that manure is by far the best orchard fertilizer, our next prob- 

 lem would be to get a sufficient supply of it. And that is often 

 where the hitch comes, so it is only part of our problem here 

 to find out what the function of manure is. On the other 

 hand, as we go through these experiments you will see that 

 wherever manure has given us especially good results, very 

 similar results have been obtained by a fertilizer rich in nitrogen 

 and phosphates. 



Ques. In the experiment with nitrogen and phosphates you 

 of course had tillage? 



Ans. No ; the tree limbs were too close together to permit it, 

 and the ground was simply untilled. 



Ques. Do you think there is any danger of adding to the 

 acidity of the soil by the use of muriate? 



Ans. No, I do not believe it will materially affect the acidity 

 of the soil. Of course it might have a harmful influence in a 

 long time, but I am very doubtful about it. 



Ques. We are using some basic slag in our orchards. Is that 

 beneficial ? 



Ans. Well, that of course would carry quite a little lime and 

 might be of service. But notice that here again lime alone has 

 been of no particular advantage to us. 



Ques. Was 15 fertilized the same as eight, with the addition 

 of lime? 



Ans. Not exactly. Plot 15 received lime alone for the first 

 five years and it has only come above the checks as a result of 

 the fertilizer added for the last couple of years. 



Ques. On what varieties was the experiment as to color 

 tried, in which the fruit was left on longer on certain plots ? 



Ans. In that case it was Baldwin. With some other varie- 

 ties, such as the York Imperial, we cannot do quite the same 

 as we can with the Baldwin, because the color on the York is 

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