352 CONNECTICUT EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT, IQOO. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE FERTILIZATION OF 

 PEACH ORCHARDS. 



BY E. H. JENKINS. 



For several years the Station has carried out experiments on 

 this subject. One of them is here described as matter of 

 record, although of course no decisive result can be looked for 

 until after a considerable term of years. The peach is particu- 

 larly unsatisfactory as an experiment crop because the fruit, 

 which alone furnishes a numerical expression of the effects of 

 fertilizers, tillage or other factors of growth, cannot be expected 

 each year and sometimes fails for a number of years. 



The experiment here described is on land of Mr. A. E. Plant 

 in Branford. The orchard is on a high hill, some miles from 

 the shore of Long Island Sound. The soil is a gravelly loam 

 of fairly good quality. The history of the field is as follows : 



After lying several years in grass, the lot was plowed in the 

 fall of 1894, was dressed during the winter with from 75 to 

 i oo bushels of unleached Canada ashes per acre, and was 

 planted to peach trees in the Spring of 1895, the varieties being 

 Mountain Rose, Champion and Early Rivers. Twelve hundred 

 pounds of Mapes' corn manure were applied per acre, and the 

 orchard planted to corn. 



The following winter, 1895-96, 75 to 100 bushels of unleached 

 ashes per acre were again put on the land. 



In the Spring of 1896, there were laid off on the south end 

 of the orchard eight plots or blocks of trees. Each of these 

 plots covered about one-third of an acre and had 48 trees 

 standing on it. The number of trees of the three varieties 

 named was the same on each plot. To the northern half of 

 each plot, 3^3 bushels or 167 pounds of slaked oyster shell 

 lime were applied. 



The plots, beginning at the west end, were marked and 

 fertilized as follows : 



A 65 pounds of muriate of potash, 160 pounds of acid phosphate. 

 B " 



and 170 pounds of cotton seed meal. 



C 65 pounds of muriate of potash, 160 pounds of acid phosphate. 

 D 130 " 

 E 260 " 



F 260 " high grade sulphate of potash, 160 pounds of acid 

 phosphate. 



