84 



E. Wolff's analyses of the ash of crops of apples, are removed, and 

 double that quantity was allowed for waste by drainage, &c, This 

 consisted of 94 Ib. of sulphate of potash, 152 Ib. superphosphate, 32 

 Ib. sulphate of magnesia, and 97 Ib. nitrate of soda per acre, and 

 was applied around the young trees for a distance of some 6 in. 

 beyond the extension of the roots. Upon the trees reaching matu- 

 rity the whole of the ground will be manured. The relative pro- 

 portions of the manuring were also those which Lawes and Gilbert 

 used for their best results in grain-growing. The fertilisers were 

 applied in autumn, except the nitrate of soda, used in spring or even 

 July. The cost was 1/10/ per acre, equal to about an equivalent 

 in dung. One half plot received before planting at the rate of 

 30 tons of London manure to the s acre, the other half annual doses 

 of 10 tons per acre, and all these trees received also the commercial 

 manures. The results after six years showed that the store of 

 food material in the trenched and well-cultivated soil was ample for 

 the young trees, and that even the largest applications of fertilisers 

 had hardly any effect at the Woburii Experimental Tree Farm. In- 

 little else than sand or exhausted agricultural land it will doubt- 

 less be quite different. His Grace admits also that older trees, 

 which have exhausted the ground around them, want manure, and 

 too rarely get it. Another result is of great interest. Where 

 grass was on purpose sown and allowed to grow around his young 

 trees, otherwise treated normal, and the grass, when cut, allowed to 

 rot on the plots, the increase in the weight of these trees when 

 lifted after three years was not so much as doubled, while other trees 

 had increased 10 to 15 fold in weight. Even total neglect, care- 

 less planting in untrenched ground, no manuring or tending of the 

 soil or trees, produced no greater effect than grass; weeds being 

 mostly annuals, are not quite so bad as. grasses. 



I will add here a list of quantities of fertilisers that have been 

 recommended for average full-grown trees, and which I have found 

 to answer fairly well. For oranges and lemons I have used years 

 ago bonedust, but subsequently have once in every year applied the 

 following in pounds, viz. : 



Thomas Nitrate 



Kainit. Phosphate. of Soda. 



Prunes 16 5 2 



Plums 12 4 2 T l 



Apricots .. ... ...16 5 2 



Peaches 12 4 1J 



Cherries ... ... . . 14 5 1 



Oranges 4 3 1J 



Lemons ... ... ... 1 3 1J 



As regards lemons, it has been no success with me, and I find 

 that probably the quantities were too small. Professor Hilgard 

 stated in 1894 that these fruits removed the following quantities 

 of plant food from one acre, viz. : 20,000 Ib. oranges, 42.2 Ib. potash, 

 10.6 Ib. phosphoric acid, 36.6 Ib. nitrogen; 20,000 Ib. lemons, 53. S 

 Ib. potash, 12.2 Ib. phosphoric acid, 30.2 Ib. nitrogen. Of course, 



