76 FRUIT-GROWING 



All of which brings us around to that nice 

 scrappy question of orchard fertilizers. I have 

 a beautiful collection of booklets put out by va- 

 rious fertilizer concerns all tending to prove 

 that an orchardist who does not use plenty of 

 some particular brand is simply committing 

 financial suicide. I also have a nice collection 

 of bulletins, not quite so ornamental but just 

 as interesting, which alternately convince one 

 that fertilizer in an orchard is essential — and 

 useless. These bulletins hail from several dif- 

 ferent states and sometimes their authorship 

 moves around from one state to another like a 

 missionary carrying the gospel from the Congo 

 to the Yangtsekiang. 



Just what is the truth about orchard 

 fertilization? 



Much as it pains me to say so, gentle reader, 

 I do not know. Further I confess that I don't 

 know any one who does. 



There are numbers of men occupying greater 

 or less positions of importance in some of our 

 experiment stations who profess to know that 

 it is not necessary and quite a number of oth- 

 ers that profess with equal earnestness to know 

 that it is all important. Usually conclusions 

 have been based on limited experimental evi- 

 dence. We learn in agriculture only by experi- 

 menting and by keeping our eyes open, but 

 there is always danger of learning too fast. 



