No. 4.] RENOVATING OLD ORCHARDS. 411 



that tlie result would be a crop of clean fruit. Of course one may be 

 confronted by special problems, like an acute attack of canker worms 

 or a scourge of apple aphis, in which case a specialist should be con- 

 sulted. But for all ordinary cases the foregoing progranmie ought 

 to be entirely adecjuatc, and it would certainly surprise most old 

 orchards to receive half of this attention. 



The fourth factor in our operations is the fertilizer question, which 

 is naturally very closeJy related to our cultivation problems and some- 

 times has to be varied to suit the cultural methods adopted. At the 

 begiiming I do not believe it is desirable to apply any nitrogenous 

 fertilizers, or if they are applied it should be in very limited quantities, 

 and early in the season. A moment's reflection will show the philosophy 

 of this. Trees which have been allowed to grow in sod, as the old 

 orchards which we are considering will undoubtedly have been, and 

 in soil which has been impoverished by constant removal of the grass 

 as hay, and of the fruit, without any return of fertilizer, will have long, 

 straggling roots sent out to forage at a distance for all the plant food 

 possible. And these long roots will have comparatively few branches 

 or small feeding roots, as it is notorious that roots branch freely in 

 a fertile soil and sparsely in a poor soil. Now when the land in 

 the orchard is plowed and cultivated, and fertilizers are applied, the 

 conditions become very much more favorable in the soil, and the 

 roots begin to branch freely in response to these improved conditions. 

 If the fertilizer has been applied in the form of barn manure, as is 

 often the case, this requires some time to decay and get into soluble 

 condition so that the roots can take it up, but when this has taken 

 place it furnishes a large amount of highly nitrogenous food which 

 tends to stimulate a very strong wood growth late in the season. The 

 trees ha\nng the root systems such as we have described, long and 

 spreading, and having sent out an abundance of feeding roots all 

 along these original main roots in response to improved conditions, 

 are sure to take up an unusual amount of this plant food, much more 

 than trees which have had regular care from the beginning, and which 

 therefore have more compact root systems. The result is that the 

 growth is continued very late in the season, that the new layer of 

 tissue between the old bark and wood does not ripen up in the autumn 

 as it should, and that when cold weather comes on it is no better 

 fitted to withstand freezing than a potato or a cabbage, and is destroyed 

 during the winter. Soon after this the bark separates from the wood, 

 and the tree dies if the bark has been killed all round, or is seriously 

 weakened if only part way. For these reasons, as I said in the begin- 

 ning, I should advise withholding nitrogenous fertilizers almost 

 entirely the first season. If the soil has any fertility to it at all the 

 cultivation and consequent improved physical condition will liberate 

 all the nitrogen that the trees need to make an entirely satisfactory 

 growth. 



But of course these arguments do not apply to other fertilizers, and 



