EVIDENCE OF HISTORY 269 



come into the possession of authoritative evi- 

 dence supporting the new hypothesis of "im- 

 mutable assets," at least as applied to the 

 growing of apples. The state experiment 

 station at Geneva, New York, concluded fer- 

 tilizer tests in the growing of apples in 1911, 

 extending over a period of fifteen years. The 

 data giving the results in detail is published 

 in Bulletin 339 of the Geneva station. 



The conclusion reached is that "on good 

 soils, properly drained and tilled, and with 

 the trees kept in healthy condition, the apple 

 secures plenty of plant food for its needs and 

 responds little, or not at all, to liberal fer- 

 tilizing." 



Quoting verbatim from the "conclusion" 

 reached by these experimenters, whose results 

 seem to be so much at variance with the 

 orthodox method of growing fruit: 



"The final conclusion must be that the trees 

 in this experiment would be practically as 

 well off in every respect had not an ounce 

 of fertilizer been used about them. If fer- 

 tilizers have no value for young trees in this 

 orchard, they have no value in innumerable 

 other orchards in New York. Fruit growers 

 are spending money and losing time, as we 



