168 One Thousand Questions in Agriculture 



without adequate moisture fertilizers cannot do their best work. 

 The increase of the humus content of the soil, either secured by 

 stable manure or by the plowing under of winter-grown cover crops, 

 is desirable, as they not only give the trees more plant food, but 

 make the soil also more retentive of moisture. You will have to 

 experiment along this line to see just what is best for your trees. 



Consult the Trees. 



Can I scud yoii a little soil out of my one-year-old pear orchard so 

 that you can advise me what I can do to improve its fertility. The trees 

 are fairly thrifty, but as fruit grozving is mv pleasure I zvish to make it 

 a model orchard and add zvhatcver it requires of nitrogen, humus, etc., 

 immediately so as to increase the groivth for this summer. Next zvinter 

 I intend to put manure around them and cultivate about every other 

 month. 



Careful experimenting with fertilizers will teach you more than 

 analysis would do, because the behavior of the tree under various 

 conditions tells you more than a chemist possibly could. Besides, 

 we are of the conviction that on good soils young fruit trees should 

 not be pushed beyond the growth which they would naturally make 

 with a regular and adequate moisture supply. Be careful about using 

 fertilizers on young trees, either in the summer or in the winter. 

 When they come to bearing age and yield large crops of fruit, that 

 is another question. Any California soil which will not grow young 

 fruit trees thriftily should not be used for orchard purposes unless 

 an amateur desires to grow trees on a picturesque lot of rocks or 

 sand. 



Results of Fertilizing Olives. 



We have lOO acres in olives about six miles northeast of Rialto in 

 San Bernardino county. In igo8 zve got about five tons from the lOO 

 acres. We began fertilizing and cultivating in 1909, and have put on the 

 100 acres about the same amount of fertiliser each year. In 1909 we 

 got /|5 tons; in 1910, ii\5 tons, and 1911 is estimated at 32^5 to 350 tons. 



It is important that your olive trees are responding to good 

 treatment and fertilization. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be 

 always the case and a good many olive trees have been made into 

 firewood because nothing seemed to bring them into satisfactory 

 bearing. Good bearing olive trees are now among the very best of 

 our horticultural properties, while non-bearing olive trees are worth 

 about $7 a cord for fire wood. 



Nursery Fertilizers. 



I have light sandy loam, zuell drained. It has been in blackberries, 

 and I now have it planted to nursery fruit tree stock. I have given it 

 this spring tzvo applications of nitrate of soda, but no other fertiliser. 

 Will the nitrate act alone, or must I apply also the phosphate and potash 

 to get results? 



