CHAPTER XXVI. 



THE MANURING OF FRUIT TREES AND BUSHES. 



By Bernard Dyer. D.Sc. F.I.G., author -jf "Fertilizors and Ft 

 and Uses." aiul for 20 years Consulting Chemist tu tlie Mam 

 tables a; Hadluw, near Tollbridge, Kent. 



Stuffs 

 als oi 



their Troiierli^^s 



Fruit and \'ege- 



The manuring of fruit crops is a much 

 more difficult question than the manuring 

 of vegetables, for it does not follow that 

 a manurial treatment which best feeds the 

 plant and stimulates its general growth 

 necessarily encourages the production of 

 the greatest quantity of fruit. It is com- 

 mon observation that a tree or plant in 

 what appears to be poor condition may 

 sometimes be loaded with fruit, while an- 

 other, in much more flourishing vegetative 

 condition, bears less satisfactorily. Every- 

 one knows that our yield of fruit is 

 enormously affected by seasonal and 

 climatic conditions, and these conditions 

 affect very much the results of manuring. 

 An application of manure that may in 

 one season appear to be injuriously large, 

 may in another season prove to be even 

 insufficient. A timely fall of rain or a few 

 days of sunshine at a critical period is 

 of more consequence than all the care that 

 can be given to manuring. We cannot, 

 however, command the weather, and our 

 study should be to ensure that the plant 

 has at its disposal whatever may be 

 necessary to enable it to take full advan- 

 tage of favourable weather should this be 

 forthcoming. 



The suggestions now to be made* are 

 those gathered from experiments carried 

 on over many years by Mr. F. W. E. 

 Shrivell, F.L.'S., and myself at Hadlow. 

 Though we have not by any means reached 

 finality in our conclusions, I gladly give 

 such views as we have arrived at. 



Strawberries. 



It is almost impossible to forecast the 

 result of manuring strawberries. So much 

 depends upon the incidence of rain and 

 sunshine in determining whether the man- 

 uring tells in the production of fruit or 



merely in the fostering of leaf growth and 

 the production of " runners." We have 

 taken something like 20 crops of straw- 

 berries of various varieties, manured 

 under varying conditions. Sometimes 

 heavy dunging has produced better re- 

 sults than light dunging, but more often 

 light dunging has been better and more, 

 economical. In many seasons a light 

 dressing (12 tons per acre) of stable man- 

 ure was all that was necessary to enable 

 the plant to produce a full crop. In other 

 years the addition of chemical fertilisers 

 to the stable manure has proved profitable 

 as regards total yield. The earliness of 

 the crop, however, is sometimes influenced 

 by fertilisers more than the total yield, 

 and this is of great importance, seeing 

 that, during the early days of strawberry 

 picking, the price per pound is often at 

 least double that obtained for the later 

 gatherings. The general conclusion at 

 which we have arrived is that for straw- 

 berries a light annual dressing of stable 

 manure (not more than 12 or 13 tons per 

 acre) should be used in preference to a 

 heavier dressing; 4 to 6 cwt. of super- 

 phosphate per acre being given at the time 

 that the dung is dug in. This treatment 

 should be followed by a dressing of 2 cwt. 

 of nitrate of soda per acre, sown between 

 the rows during the spring. If stable 

 manure is used no potash salts need be 

 added. 



Gooseberries. 



The most economical treatment is a 

 moderate annual dressing of stable man- 

 ure (say about 12 tons, or 25 small cart- 

 loads, per acre), with about 6 cwt. of 

 superphosphate and 1 cwt. of sulphate of 

 potash per acre. These latter should be 

 well dug into the ground with the dung 



