46 HORTICULTURE, FORESTRY, FLORICULTURE 



fine; 100 to 300 pounds of sulphate of potash ; 100 to 300 pounds of 

 nitrate of soda, (d) Barnyard manure. 6 tons per acre. (U. S. E. 

 S. B. 178.) 



Difference in Availability for Different Kinds of Fruit. This 

 does not mean, however, that one fertilizer would be as well adapted 

 to one fruit as to another. That is to say, there are qualities in a 

 commercial fertilizer outside of the chemical composition which 

 affect very materially its value and adaptability to particular uses. 

 Chief among these qualities is the ease with which the elements of 

 plant food contained therein are available. Under some conditions a 

 very readily available plant food is required ; under others, one that 

 acts more slowly is much to be preferred. For example, it would 

 perhaps be dangerous to use very much of a very quick acting fer- 

 tilizer, especially if it contained very much nitrogen, on pears, for it 

 is quite likely to leave the tissue in such a condition as to fall easy 

 prey to blight. Likewise, it is as a rule not advisable to apply large 

 quantities of a readily available plant food to apples. On the other 

 hand, a peach orchard, located on comparatively thin land, and 

 loaded with fruit, would be greatly benefited by a liberal quantity 

 of a very readily available food. The same would be true of all the 

 small fruits. 



A safe rule in all cases would be in making up a commercial 

 fertilizer to supply a small quantity of immediately available mate- 

 rial and furnish the remainder in a slow acting form, so that a uni- 

 form supply of food may be provided and a steady and uniform 

 growth promoted. This is more particularly true of nitrogen than 

 of the mineral elements. To secure this condition with nitrogen the 

 readily available material may be supplied in the form of nitrate of 

 soda, or preferably dried blood, or cottonseed meal, and for the slow 

 acting material, barnyard manure, tankage or a pure raw bone meal, 

 or cheaper than any of these, cowpeas or clover. In the case of the 

 phosphorus, a small quantity of acidulated rock would furnish the 

 material required for immediate use, and the remainder could be 

 more advantageously supplied in steamed bone, or much cheaper 

 and probably quite as well in Jthe long run, in finely ground raw 

 phosphate rock. In this case it will always be necessary to plow 

 under vegetable matter frequently to facilitate the unlocking of this 

 phosphorus. 



Dangers That May Follow the Use of Fertilizers. If care and 

 judgment be exercised in the amount of nitrogen applied and the 

 season of the year in which the application is made, whether it be 

 commercial fertilizer, barnyard manure, or a leguminous crop turned 

 under, there will be no unfortunate results to follow. The only dis- 

 advantage in applying too much potash and phosphoric acid comes 

 from the expense of buying an unnecessarily large amount of these 

 ingredients. They will not cause too much wood growth, as will an 

 excessive amount of nitrogen, and will not, so far as we know, di- 

 minish the tendency toward fruitfulness, or cause a late growth, or 

 prevent a proper ripening of the wood for winter, or produce a soft 

 and immature tissue that is especially subject to the attacks of fun- 



