Soils, Fertilizers and Irrigation 157 



a mass. You need not be fearful about using these ashes. Scatter 

 or spread them over the ground just as you would have spread the 

 manure, let the rains dissolve and carry down what they can and 

 go on with your usual methods of cultivation. 



The Best Fertilizer for Sand. 



Hoiv can I best fertilize soil that is pure sand? 



The best fertilizer for pure sand is well-rotted stable manure, 

 because it not only supplies all kinds of plant food, but increases 

 the humus in the soil, which is exceedingly important in making the 

 sand more retentive of moisture as well as more productive. 



Fertilizers in Tree Holes. 



Would it be harmful to add 2 or 3 founds of steamed bone meal to 

 the hole of a young tree just before planting? 



There would be no injury, providing you mix it with a consider- 

 able amount of soil by digging over the bottom of the hole, but our 

 conviction is that on lands which are good enough for the commer- 

 cial planting of fruit trees, it is not necessary to stimulate a young 

 tree in this way, but that it is better to postpone the use of fer- 

 tilizers until the trees come into bearing and show the desirability 

 of more liberal feeding. Of course, if young trees do not make 

 satisfactory growth, they may be stimulated either with some kind 

 of a fertilizer or with a freer use of water, and it is generally the 

 latter that they are chiefly in need of. 



Wood Ashes and Tomatoes. 



Is there any harm to vegetable growing to dig sufficient of wood 

 ashes in for mellozving heavy soil? My tomato plants grezv splendidly 

 this year, but the fruits were all rough and zvrinkled. I gave them plenty 

 of horse and poultry manure at planting and plenty of wood ashes and 

 falling leaves of cypress later. 



Wood ashes do not mellow a heavy soil. The efifect of the 

 potash is to overcome the granular structure and increase compact- 

 ness. Coal ashes, because they are coarser in particles and devoid 

 of potash, do promote mellowness, and are valuable mechanically 

 on a heavy soil although they do not contain appreciable amounts 

 of plant food. You are overfeeding your tomato plants, probably. 

 The chances are that you had poor seed. There is no best tomato, 

 because you ought to grow early and late kinds: there is also some 

 diflference in the behavior of varieties in different places. 



Was It the Potash or the Water? 



Last year the lye from the prune dipper zvas turned on the ground 

 near tzvo almond trees which seemed to be dying, and to my surprise 

 they have taken a nezv lease of life. Hence my conclttsion that potash 

 was good for our soil. 



