FERTILIZERS IN FRUIT GROWING 125 



125 pounds of nitrate of soda. For peaches, he recom- 

 mends still heavier fertilization, because the cropping is 

 more exhaustive and the tree matures more rapidly. Here, 

 too, he would use some quickly available nitrogen like 

 nitrate of soda. 



The only careful and continuous experiment on the fer- 

 tilization of a peach orchard, of which we have full record, 

 was made by Professor Voorhees. -The fertilized plot 

 received annually 150 pounds nitrate of soda, 350 pounds 

 dissolved boneblack, and 150 pounds muriate of potash per 

 acre. The manured plot had 20 tons of manure each year 

 per acre, and another plot received no manure. 



In seven crop years, the yield without manure averaged 

 86 baskets per acre annually ; with fertilizers, 262 ; with 

 manure, 277. 



In a very favorable season, the plot without fertilizer or 

 manure yielded only 11 baskets; fertilized, 152; manured, 

 162. 



He found that, on unmanured and unfertilized land, the 

 crops, after eight years, were so small as to reduce the 

 average of the whole period ; while on the manured or 

 fertilized land the average was not only not reduced, but 

 actually increased; i. e., after the unfertilized trees had 

 practically ceased to bear, the fertilized trees were bearing 

 better than ever. It is also noteworthy that fertilizers 

 tided the trees over unfavorable seasons, making them 

 moderately fruitful, while the crop of unfertilized trees was 

 a failure. 



Q. Do these amounts of fertilizer given represent the 

 quantity of food used in a crop of peaches in a single sea- 

 son, or does some of the food pass back into the tree ? 



A. I think you cannot judge entirely by what you find 

 in the fruit itself. 



Mr. Platt: I understood that the nutriment that was 

 in the leaves went back into the buds and remained for 

 another 5'ear. Now, the relative amount of nourishment 

 that is stored up in a tree depends on the amount of leaves 

 you have grown, and the size of the leaves, so that a tree 

 which had only one-third or one-half of the leaves full size, 



