102 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1899. 



soil beJoir that point. Notice the difference of tilth of a spaded 

 garden and of a ploived field. The ideal system of cultivation 

 for our fruit-producing trees and plants can be made only by 

 suitable implements specially adapted to the required work. 

 We have found the best ones in the Steel Swivel Plow ; the 

 Pick-tongued Subsoil Plow ; the Spading, Cutaway, and Acme 

 Harrows ; the Plank Drag ; and Harrow-toothed Cultivator. 



FERTILITY. 



In maintaining proper fertility we attach great importance to 

 the preservation of humus in the soil, as it performs different 

 functions, which are of the greatest importance in crop produc- 

 tion. For it influences the temperature, tilth, permeability, 

 absorption, weight and color of soils, and controls to a high 

 degree their supply of water, nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and 

 potash. Humus is added to the soil by application of organic 

 matter in the form of stable manures, decayed animal and vege- 

 table matter. The marked difterence between old wornout soils 

 and that of new virgin soils — of the same character — is in the 

 amount of humus which is present. In the decline of fertility 

 the loss of humus is chiefly the cause, more than that of the 

 removal of the essential fertilizing elements. 



NITROGEN IN HUMUS. 



The two most important points regarding the composition of 

 humus are, the presence of nitrogen as a constituent, and the 

 chemical union of the humus with potash, lime, phosphoric acid, 

 forming humates. Good humus generally contains from 3 to 

 .14 % nitrogen. It is also a means of supplying indirectly 

 compounds which are essential as plant food, and combined with 

 potash, lime and phosphoric acid this mineral matter so chemi- 

 cally combined is of fertilizing value. It is well known that 

 stable manures are among the most lasting in its effect of any 

 of the fertilizers which can be applied. This is due to the power 

 which the manure possesses of uniting with the soil potash, phos- 

 phoric acid and lime, &c., to produce humates —which is also 

 useful in nuiking the inert plant food of the soil more available ; 



