FERTILIZING PEACHES 



as the above, to be in position to substantiate them through 

 the actual experience of the man who has been growing 

 peaches and has demonstrated to his own satisfaction that 

 applications of commercial plant food are justified by the 

 results secured in the way of increased yield and improved 

 quality of product. To this end certain experiments were 

 undertaken by Mr. C. E. Bassett, of Fennville, Michigan, 

 who operates a sixty-acre fruit farm of which thirty acres 

 are devoted to peaches. The land is sandy in character but 

 of a type excellently adapted for the cultivation of peaches 

 and other fruits provided it is well managed and properly 

 fertilized. 



In this test seven plats of one-quarter acre each were 

 used and the work of applying the fertilizers and harvest-- 

 ing the crop was carried out with ^discrimination and care 

 throughout a series of years. The season of 1910, by no 

 means an ideal one, was characterized by an early, dry, 

 warm spring which eventually proved, however, to be a late 

 spring during which much rain fell and was followed by 

 a dry and backward summer. The results secured during 

 this year which are described in the following pages may be 

 regarded as fairly typical of what can be expected under 

 similar conditions in the mid-western peach belt. The data 

 relative to the experiment carried 'out by Mr. Bassett have 

 been summarized very carefully in the accompanying table : 



