Food for Plants. 1^7 



improvement in general vigor and appearance ; whereas, 

 none of the trees in the sprayed plat failed to respond 

 in all of these particulars. Of course, this single tree 

 test in the application of Nitrate to the soil is too small 

 an experiment to permit concluding positively that the 

 effects that we have reported from the spraying experi- 

 ments are of an entirely different nature and belong in 

 a different category from those produced by the ordinary 

 soil application of Nitrate. A careful consideration of 

 the results of ordinary orchard practice in fertilizing- 

 seems to make it plain that tliere is no similarity between 

 them and the results from spraying. For instance, in the 

 usual practice of applying Nitrate of Soda as a fertilizer 

 to apple orchards in the region of AVatsonville, Cal., a 

 winter or early spring application does not force the 

 bloom out 10 days or 2 weeks ahead of the normal open- 

 ing period and has had no measurable effect in increas- 

 ing the set of fruit that same year. The fact that the 

 addition of caustic soda or oxalic acid to the Nitrate 

 spray augments these various effects further emphasizes 

 the difference between the results from spraying and the 

 ordinary results from the application of fertilizer. 

 Caustic-soda solution alone applied as a spray has no 

 effect on the time of blooming or the crop production. 



EXPERIMENTS OF GROWERS IN 1913. 

 Yellow Bellflower Apples. 



During the past season a number of growers made 

 more or less extensive tests of the spraying with Nitrate 

 of Soda. An aggregate of several hundred acres of Yel- 

 low Bellflower apples was sprayed with Nitrate of Soda 

 plus caustic soda, but practically all of this acreage was 

 in the same district in which the writer's experiments 

 were conducted, so the crop was lost by frost. It was 

 noticeable during the past summer, however, that the 

 foliage in such orchards as received very thorough win- 

 ter Nitrate sprayings had a better appearance than in 

 years past, due apparently to the effect of the Nitrate. 



