76 SECOND THOUSAND QUESTIONS IN AGRICULTURE 



Pie Melons Poor Fertilizer. 



We have a large quantity of volunteer pie melons in the vineyard 

 and are selling them at a dollar a load. Would it be better to allow them 

 to rot on the ground as fertilizer? 



Sell them, unless you can feed them to advantage. They surely are 

 not worth a dollar a load as a fertilizer. 



Potato Vines as Fertilizer. 



How can I best use potato vines for fertiliser? They seem to 

 enrich the ground when plowed under or mixed With other manure, 

 but they help to perpetuate the potato disease, zvhich I am trying to elim- 

 inate by disinfecting seed, rotation, etc. Is there any way to disinfect the 

 vines, or don't you think they are worth it? 



They are not worth the labor and chemicals required for disinfec- 

 tion. Plow them in and use the land for grain or hay or other crop 

 which is not affected by potato diseases. That is one of the advantages 

 which pertain to rotation. This would bring your potatoes on ground 

 new to them each year and your question disappears. 



Price for Poultry Manure. 



What is a proper price for poultry manure free of sand and feathers, 

 and put up in sacks? I find that a sack of the dry manure weighs 

 about 60 pounds, and my idea was to run it through a fanning mill so 

 as to blow out the feathers and screen the sand so as to leave the manure 

 clear and clean. As I have had the poultry running in the peach orchard 

 for twenty years I well know the value of this manure. 



The composition of hen manure (fresh) averages about 1% nitro- 

 gen, 0.80% phosphoric acid, and 0.40% potash ; in other words, 20 pounds 

 nitrogen per ton, 16 pounds phosphoric acid, and 8 pounds potash. 

 This contains 55% moisture and when thoroughly dried would contain 

 probably only about about half as much, which would make the amounts 

 of plant foods just double what is stated above. At the values given 

 by the State Fertilizer Control for these plant foods, the manure prepared 

 as you describe might sell for about $10 per ton, for the same materials 

 in other forms could be purchased for about that price. 



Fertilizing Young Trees. 



On an acreage of pears and apples, most of them two years old, 

 I desire to use fertilizer. Thus far both apples and pears look -well, 

 but feel that I should fertilize. 



If the trees made enough wood growth and had good-sized and colored 

 leaves, it is a question whether fertilizing would be any advantage at 

 this stage of their growth. It is the same way with irrigation : if one 

 gets good growth on a young tree, neither irrigation nor fertilization 

 is necessary; but both may be very necessary later and probably it will 



