Food for Apples. Cherries. Plums. 



Plants Unfertilized xoo Ibs. zoo Ibs. 100 Ibs. 



~^ Fertilized 3r4 2 Ibs. 218 Ibs. 329 Ibs. 



The following table shows the amount of Nitrogen, 

 phosphoric acid and potash removed from an acre of ground 

 by an average crop of the fruits named : 



Nitrogen. Phosphoric Potash. 

 Ibs. Acid. Ibs. Ibs. 



Grapes, crop of 10,000 Ibs 17 15 50 



Prunes, crop of 30,000 Ibs 45 16 80 



Apricots, crop of 30,000 Ibs 69 21 84 



It will be noticed that while a crop of prunes takes prac- 

 tically no more phosphoric acid from the soil than a crop of 

 grapes, yet the amount of Nitrogen removed is nearly three 

 times as much, and in the case of apricots over four times as 

 much as required by grapes. It is evident that a few crops 

 of plums or apricots will materially reduce the amount of 

 Nitrogen in the soil, which is usually deficient to start with, 

 and therefore this element of plant food must be replenished 

 or the fruit will soon deteriorate in size. 



" Time to apply should be when fruit it half grown, and cultivate in to get 

 the Nitrate mixed with the moist soil." 



Unless it is known that there is suf- 

 ficient phosphoric acid and potash in the 

 Required and so jj s ^ SU p er phosphate or bone meal, and if 

 Time to Apply. necess ary to furnish sulphate of potash, 

 wood ashes, apply early in the winter or early spring. Two 

 or three pounds of bone dust and one pound sulphate of pot- 

 ash or ten pounds unleached wood ashes per tree would be 

 about the right quantities. The Nitrate of Soda should be 

 applied after the fruit is set at the rate of two to three pounds 

 per tree. It is important that the fertilizers should be well 

 mixed with the soil, and that they be applied not close to the 

 trunks of the trees, but considerably further out than the 

 branches reach. 



Small Fruits. 



Under this head we treat of blackberries, currants, 

 gooseberries and raspberries. Strawberries are treated sepa- 

 rately. All these small fruits are commonly grown in the 

 garden, generally under such conditions that systematic tillage 

 is not practicable. For this reason such plant food essentials 

 as may exist naturally in the soil become available to the uses 



