79 



Ib. to a ton of commercial fertilisers is applied per acre ; seldom, 

 more for a high-grade leaf for wrapping. In the Connecticut Val- 

 ley applications of 3,000 Ib. of concentrated chemical fertilisers is 

 the rule rather than the exception, the nitrogen being supplied 

 in various forms, and at different times, and the phosphoric acid and 

 potash broadcasted before planting. The proportion is about 60 

 }b. of phosphoric acid to 75 Ib. of nitrogen, and 120 Ib. of potash 

 per acre. Professor Keszler's remarks on the burning of tobacco 

 in my paper read on August 29, 1892, at the Central Agricultural 

 Bureau, should be well considered before manuring. He recom- 

 mends from 400 to 480 Ib. of sulphate of potassium and magnesium 

 in autumn and 240 to 320 Ib. in spring per acre, well mixed with the 

 soil. Professor Stutzer recommends Martellin to be used some time 

 after other fertilisers. 



ORCHARDS. , 



Planting of fruit-trees was being carried on, in 1900 

 in South Australia more than ever before. In 1899 there were 

 15,477 acres, irrespective of the trees grown in cottage gardens. But 

 I doubt very much that manuring of them has been properly carried 

 cut, if at all. Only during the last six years the manuring of 

 fruit-trees with anything but compost or farmyard dung has been 

 called attention to. The few experiments made with commercial 

 fertilisers have been made to trees only a few years old, or at plant- 

 ing. This much is certain, that we have not to judge by the con- 

 tents of the several fruits what the trees require as plant food. The 

 late Professor Dr. Barth said : "Not in the fruit is the preparation 

 of their sugar; the leaves do this with the aid of the sunlight by 

 means of the chlorophyl in them, and the water from the roots. 

 The sugar thus produced proceeds from the leaves, through branches 

 and twigs, and forms with other plant food received from the roots 

 new wood and leaves, &c., and only later in the season obtain the 

 fruits the sugar after the actual growth of the tree is less energetic." 

 He and Dr. Steglich have at last found that the plant food required 

 in a year by apples, pears, cherries, and plums is very different. 

 An apple-tree requires yearly in grammes, if its stem has a circum- 

 ference of 10 in., 59 g. of nitrogen, 11 g. of phosphoric acid, 51 g. of 

 potash, and 109 g. of lime. A pear-tree of like dimensions wants 

 37 g. of nitrogen, 7 g. of phosphoric acid, 40 g. of potash, and 69 g. 

 of lime. A sweet cherry-tree requires 30 g. phosphoric acid, 95 g. of 

 potash, and 209 g .of lime. A plum-tree, 11 g. phosphoric acid, 

 74 g. of potash, arid 75 g. of lime. The quantity of nitrogen 

 is not certain for the two latter; but the yearly require- 

 ments per square yard may be only 3 to 4 grammes for the cherry 

 and 7 to 8 g. for the plum, not 17 g. as mentioned by A. Wagner, 

 Director of the Agricultural Winter School at Gelnhausen. 



Quite lately Dr. Steglich, of the Experimental Station at the 

 Botanical Gardens in Dresden, has favored me with fuller informa- 

 tion. He savs, in concord with M. Lechartiers, that fruit-troes 

 require comparatively little phosphoric acid, two to three times ;*s 

 much nitrogen, and three to four times as much potash, or per 



