Food I'oit Plants. 133 



per plat. The single tree which received the 50 pouiid& 

 of Nitrate of Soda applied as a fertilizer gave no in- 

 creased production, whereas none of the trees in the 

 Nitrate-sprayed row failed to respond. 



Regarding the single, heavily fertilized tree, it 

 might he stated that in addition to its showing no in- 

 crease in production, the tree bloomed no earlier than 

 normal, there was no improvement in the growth and 

 no change in its general appearance throughout the 

 growling season of 1912, and in the spring of 1913 it 

 came out normally and not differently from the other 

 trees in the same row, being one of the trees in a check 

 plat. The tree is still in normal condition and shows 

 no noticeable effect from the heavy fertilizing. The 

 orchard is not irrigated, and the rainfall has been 

 much less than normal during the last two years. 



Attention might again be called to the conditions 

 under which these results were obtained — namely, 

 thrifty-growing trees in a deep residual soil and havi/ig 

 the characteristic of blooming abundantly each year 

 but setting only a shy crop. Even the 40 boxes pro- 

 duced by the Nitrate spraying does not represent the 

 full crop that such trees should bear, but the fourfold 

 increase much more than paid for the cost of spraying, 

 and the possibility remains of still further increasing 

 that production by similar treatment in following years. 



Experiments in 1913. 



The one small experiment on seven trees in 1912 did 

 not furnish sufficient grounds for drawing any general 

 conclusions as to the applicability of Avinter Nitrate 

 spraying, but the striking results^ obtained opened a 

 wide iield of inquiry. For instance, potash lye was 

 added to the solution of Nitrate of Soda in the experi- 

 ment of 1912, so the questions arise as to whether the 

 lye was necessary and whether an acid medium would 

 increase or decrease the effect of the Nitrate of Soda; 

 also, would a weaker Nitrate solution prove as effective 

 and would other nitrogen-bearing fertilizer materials, 



