228 SOILS AND FERTILIZERS 



311. Fruit Trees. In the manuring of fruit trees, it 

 should be the object first to produce thrifty trees as sub- 

 sequent fertilizing to produce fruit will not give satis- 

 factory results with poorly grown and partially de- 

 veloped trees. In order to promote growth, a liberal 

 supply of a complete fertilizer should be used. When 

 an orchard is in full bearing, there is as heavy a draft 

 upon the soil as when a wheat crop is grown.? To 

 meet this, farm manures and commercial fertilizers 

 should be used liberally. The quality of the fruit is 

 often adversely affected by a scant supply of plant 

 food. A quick acting fertilizer containing kainit, 

 nitrate of soda, and dissolved phosphate rock should 

 be used in the spring, followed if necessary by a light 

 dressing of some manure which yields up its fertility 

 more slowly. Stone fruits are benefited by the addi- 

 tion of lime to the fertilizer. 



312. Lawns. In the preparation of a lawn, a 

 mixture of six parts of bone ash, two parts of muriate 

 of potash and one part of nitrate of soda can be ap- 

 plied at the rate of 5 to 7 pounds per square rod prior 

 to seeding. A good lawn should have a subsoil that 

 is fairly retentive of moisture, one containing 10 to 

 15 per cent, of clay or a large amount of fine silt. 

 Too much potash and lime encourage exclusive growth 

 of clover and crowding out of grasses. During the 

 season, two or three applications can be made of a 

 commercial fertilizer containing about 3 per cent, of 

 nitrogen, 10 per cent, of phosphoric acid, and 3 per 

 cent, of potash, at the rate of about one pound per 



