Fertilizing and Cultivating Orchards 



HAVE been using limited quantities 

 of fertilizers, as also have some of 

 my neighbors. I have seen peach 

 prchards which had liberal annual appli- 

 cations of fertilizers, such as vi'ood ashes, 

 pone meal, and bone and animal meal, 

 mixed with potash, and clean cultivation 

 practised year after year, on sandy soil, 

 until late in the season. From the re- 

 sults obtained, the expenditure was not 

 justified by the increase of crop. 



SOME METHODS AND RESULTS 



How best can we fertilize an orchard? 

 The answer can be given best by actual 

 experiment. There are cases on record 

 of apple orchards on heavy ground, 

 where part had annual applications of 

 bone and potash, while the adjoining part 

 had the same treatment as to cultivation 

 and spraying, but no fertilizer. There 

 was no apparent difference in the amount 

 or quality of the fruit ; this is an excep- 

 tional case. 



On sandy soils, unless we add plant 

 food in some form, the tendency is for 

 the land to become impov^ished. When 

 'and becomes poor, there is no quicker 

 and better method to restore it than by 

 the use of a liberal dressing of barnyard 

 manure. But if we follow this method 

 too closely, we go to the other extreme, 

 and often obtain rather too vigorous a 

 growth of tree, especially in young or- 

 chards, which is not conducive to fruit- 

 fulness or profit; even if the trees do 

 bear, the fruit will often ripen a week or 

 ten days later than the normal period of 

 ripening. 



The common practice is to use barn- 

 vard manure occasionally, especially if 

 ■he trees are suffering from the strain of 

 i>earing an overload of fruit. This is ap- 

 plied after growth cea.ses, in the fall, or 

 in early spring. 



CLEAN CULTIVATION 



Clean cultivation is usually given and 

 IS best for peaches, cherries or plums. It 

 is best, also, for pears, if one is not 

 bothered with fire blight ; if so, pears are 

 left in sod, as the poorer or slower 

 growth does not favor the development 

 of the fire blight to the same extent. 

 This clean cultivation .should cease about 

 the end of July, and it is better then to 

 Seed the orchard down with a cover crop. 



COVER CROPS SHOULD BE USED 



There are various kinds of cover crops 

 to use. I have used crim.son clover, 

 mammoth red clover, hairy vetch. Dwarf 

 Essex rape, rye or even wheat ; if the 

 ind is underdrained, the latter will win- 

 •' r all right. To get a good catch of the 

 'lovers or vetch, the land must be rich 

 and kept well cultivated up to the time 

 of sowing, or the clover and vetch may 

 not gni ;i irood enough stand to winter 



Geo. A. Robertson, St. Catharines, Ontario. 



well ; in this case rye is surer, although 

 rye does not add nitrogen to the soil, as 

 the clovers and vetches do. These are 

 plowed under as soon as the land is dry 

 enough the following spring ; if very 



of steamed dry bone dust, and a sack of 

 200 to 225 pounds of muriate of potash, 

 or, if wood ashes are used to supply the 

 potash, from one to two tons an acre, 

 when the amount of bone may be less- 



A Burst of Bloom on a British Columbia Cherry Tree 



The variety is Olivet. Note tlie very licavy clusters of blossoms. This tree has been well fed and 

 eared for. Qood attention brings results. 



heavy, we use a railing coulter, kept 

 sharp, and a chain, to turn the cover 

 crop under. 



By the u.se of suitable cover crops, 

 and an application of bone dust for phos- 

 phoric arid, and potash, in the form of 

 potash salts, such as muriate of» potash, 

 or sulphate of potash, or wood ashes, the 

 land may be kept in good shape. A 

 liberal application consists of 600 pounds 



ened on account of the phosphoric acid 

 contained in the wood ashes. 



I do not use mixed fertilizers, as the 

 manufacturer charges for mixing, but 

 sow them separately. The bone meal is 

 untreated by acid and, therefore, insolu- 

 ble ; the potash also is not soluble to any 

 gre.it extent ; therefore the danger of loss 

 by leaching is small. If barnyard man- 

 ure is used and cover crops, the humic 



