APPLICATION 



107 



use all the barn manure we have to spare, and we iisuall}- get over 

 them once in about four years, giving a fair application. In 

 addition we apply each year 400 to 500 pounds of ground bone 

 per acre and 200 to 300 pounds of muriate of potash. ' ' 



Professor J. P. Stewart, of the Pennsylvania Experiment 

 Station, who has given a great deal of study to this (luestion 

 of fertilizing orchards, gives the following table of fertilizers 

 to be used while detennining by experiment what tlie orchard 

 actually needs : 



Tabi.k III. — A General Fertilizer for Apple Orchards. 



(Amounts per Acre for Bearing Trees) 



Application, — In appl.ying fertilizers it is much better to use 

 a fertilizer spreader when possible. Of course where the trees 

 are young, and the fertilizer is therefore spread over only a 

 part of the surface, it is usually necessary to put it on by hand. 



Insoluble materials, or those slowly soluble, like bone meal 

 and basic slag, should be applied before the land is plowed or 

 should be otherwise thoroughly incorporated with the soil. Those 

 which dissolve readily, like muriate and sulfate of potash or 

 nitrate of soda, may be spread upon the surface and will wash 

 in with the first rain. 



The potash and phosphoric acid salts are not readily washed 

 out of the soil and may therefore be applied at almost any season 

 of the year, though the orchardist should avoid a time Avhen 

 there are likely to be dashing rains which will carry them off 

 in the surface water. But nitrogen is very likely to escape and 



