202 POMOLOGY 



173. The Wobum experiment.^— At the Woburn Ex- 

 perimental Fruit Farm (England), a cultivated orchard was 

 treated annually for fourteen years and at the completion 

 of the work the following conclusion was drawn: "Neither 

 moderate nor heavy dressings of dung or artificial fertilizers, 

 nor of both combined, had any appreciable effect on any 

 feature of the trees nor on the crops from them. The total 

 effect did not amount to 5 per cent and even that effect was 

 doubtful. The only exception was in the case of nitrate ap- 

 plied in the early summer which in several seasons produced 

 a good effect." 



Later Pickering reports the following:^ "The results ob- 

 tained at Ridgmont during twenty-two years lead to the 

 conclusion that the apple trees which have been dressed 

 every year throughout that period with various dressings 

 of artificial or natural manure have shown no appreciable 

 advantage over similar trees which received no dressing 

 whatever. Whilst this, however, has been the case with 

 dwarf and standard apple trees, and also mixed with plan- 

 tations of apples, pears, and plums, the reverse has proved 

 to be the case with bush fruits, such as currants, goose- 

 berries, and raspberries: those which were left umnanured 

 have been practically exterminated, whilst those which were 

 manured flourished. But the manure which was essential 

 in these cases was a bulky organic manure, such as dung, 

 since artificial manures p'roduced but little more effect 

 than no manure at all." 



174. The New York experiments. — Hedrick reports 

 on a twelve-year experiment ^ in a mature orchard in New 

 York, showing that neither lime, potash, nor phosphoric acid 

 had any practical effect on the growth or yield of the trees. 



1 Woburn Expt. Fruit, Farm. 4th and 5th Rept. 1904-05. 



2 Science and Fruit Growing. London. 1919. pp. 89-90. 



3 N. Y. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 289. 1907. 



