STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 135 



it on the surface and allowing the rains to carry it down as by 

 tilling it in. 



Mr. Morse : VVe have been taught strongly not to sow 

 ground bone on the surface ; that it will yield less benefit. 



Prof. Stewart : It is possible that you lose the nitrogen there. 

 At the same time there is not much nitrogen in ground bone and 

 we are getting good results from dried blood left on the surface. 



Ques. What do you mean by proper fertilization? 



Prof. Stewart: I mean the fertilization that is adjusted to 

 your orchard. Until it is adjusted the best guess that I can 

 make is the general fertilizer that I showed you yesterday. My 

 advice always is to take that general fertilizer, use it where you 

 think your orchard needs it and then accompany it with a local 

 testing plan in order to adjust the fertilization to your own 

 orchard. 



Ques. The young trees mulched show better results? 



Prof. Stewart : Yes. 



Ques. The older trees with the cover crops show better re- 

 sults ? 



Prof. Stewart : Yes. 



Ques. Suppose we run our young trees on mulch five or ten 

 years, how about changing that over? 



Prof. Stewart: As I said before, we can do that if we go in 

 with a double-action disc or something of that sort that does not 

 injure the roots in the way the ordinary plow does. 



Ques. What time of year would you apply the manure? 



Prof. Stewart : It can be applied any time from late winter 

 until the buds burst. 



Ques. About this time? 



Prof. Stewart: You can put the manure on now if it is in 

 the way ; but I think that the manure application from late win- 

 ter, perhaps February, to budding out time is about right. This 

 is for manure. But with a nitrogenous fertilizer, as I said yes- 

 terday, you don't want to put that on so early. 



Ques. How about adding manure to the tillage and cover 

 crops ? 



Prof. Stewart : We did that on those young orchards and 

 also on the 36 year old orchard, — we added the manure to till- 

 age and cover crop and didn't get nearly as big a gain as from 



