TREATMENT FOR OLD ORCHARDS. 71 



tankage, 400 basic slag, 200 sulphate potash (N. H. Station for- 

 mula). This gives 5 per cent of nitrogen, 8.3 of phosphoric acid, 

 and 8.3 of potash. The second year apply one-half pound, third 

 year three-fourths, and so on, extending the amount each year. 



Some may question the profits. Let me cite a few cases coming 

 under my own observation the past few years. 



In one case the old trees on one acre of light soil, so poor in 

 condition that when purchased five years ago the trees were 

 counted worthless, were treated much the same as my own and for 

 three years past the net returns from the fruit gathered have 

 exceeded two hundred dollars yearly. 



Four and one-half acres in a Massachusetts town gave in 1910 

 S00 barrels of choice Baldwins and Spys. One Baldwin tree gave 

 17 barrels and two Spy trees 28 barrels. These trees have been 

 sprayed once yearly since 1896. No brown-tail moths, no scale, 

 no codling moths in that orchard, yet all around the orchards in 

 as good condition as this when spraying commenced are all dead. 



An old orchard of this neglected description composed of 500 

 trees, taken in hand and put in shape, at the end of four years from 

 the time the work of reclaiming began, had returned its owner 83400. 



Another of 140 trees not in prime condition, surely not fertilized 

 properly, returned, in eight years, six thousand dollars to its owner, 

 with a total outlay for fertilizer, barrels, picking, and packing of 

 one thousand dollars. In 1909 the yield was 260 barrels, selling 

 for S3. 25, and in 1910, 287, for which the owner realized 84.05 per 

 barrel. All over New England these illustrations might be dupli- 

 cated. One little section in Northern Massachusetts, rocky, not 

 to be cultivated, covering a small fraction of three or four towns, 

 sent out last year more than forty thousand dollars' worth of 

 apples, mostly from reclaimed trees, and there is promise of great 

 increase, for the work begun has not yet borne full fruitage. 



The mainspring of success lies in producing a choicer product 

 than your neighbor. The shortest route to this end lies in the 

 creating of pedigree trees. The influence of root or trunk upon 

 fruit through scion is not yet fixed, but there is the certainty that 

 the better the quality of the tree in which the scion is set the 

 greater the promise for improvement through the graft. A field 

 of experimentation is here suggested at once inviting and promising. 



