i888. 



POPUi^AR GARDENING. 



Manures other than from Live Stock 

 for Fruit and Vegetable Growing. 



T. T. LYON, VAN BtTRKN CO., MICH. 



Tlie fniit growers of the east shore of 

 Ijake Michigan, especially about this place, 

 (South Haven), are very largely owners of 

 small parcels of land, In most cases wholly 

 occupied by permanent fruit plantations, 

 affording little opportunity for the manu- 

 facture of barn-yard manures. It is also 

 true that very little stable manure is obtain- 

 able in the vicinity, so that, although the 

 region is yet new with much virgin soil, the 

 manure question is already pressing. 



Very little manufactured manure is yet 

 used in this vicinity ; although farther 

 south, in Berrien County, where fruit 

 planting commenced somewhat earlier, 

 these are more extensively used. So gen- 

 eral, however, is the distrust of these com- 

 positions, and even of the analysis of their 

 alleged constituents, that they are accepted 

 with more or less hesitation, while some of 

 the most efficient and successful fruit farm- 

 ers practice the manufacturing of their own 

 manure, visiting the Chicago stock yards 

 and purchasing the crude material. 



Green manures are quite generally em- 

 ployed to assist in maintaining the fertility 

 of fruit plantations in this region, although 

 it is hardly anticipated that they will suffice 

 to fully and permanently maintain therequis- 

 ite conditions. Clover requires too long a 

 perio<l to mature a crop suitable for plowing 

 under in fruit plantations; resort is there- 

 fore quite generally had to Rye: sowed in 

 August, and plowed down green the next 

 spring before heading; or to Oats or Buck- 

 wheat, sowed and plowed down same year. 



The conviction seems quite general that 

 the plowing underlof green manures should 

 be practiced only as a temporary expedient; 

 and that a necessity must .'sooner or later 

 arise for the employment of something 

 adequate to fully maintain and even in- 

 crease soil fertility. 



Muck, where it is obtainable in a thor- 

 oughly decomposed condition, is very nearly 

 as effective as barn-yard manure, and more 

 especially so after having been used in the 

 stable as an absorbent. 



GEO. J. KELLOQ, ROCK CO., WISCONSIN. 



My experience with commercial fertilizers 

 has not been satisfactory. By request of 



Plat No. 1. 1 applied before plowing, one 

 load, one-half cord, of unrottod stable manure, 

 (horse and cow); 

 Plat No. 3. No manure or fertilizers; 

 Plat No. 3. 6)4 pounds bone meal applied about 

 plants after planting; 



Plat No. 4. I))4 pounds sulphate of potash ap- 

 plied about plants after planting. 



The ground was in rather lean condition, 

 so that the fertilizers ought to have shown 

 results; the plats were well cared for, spring 

 planted; the Wilson and Manchester was 

 set 18x36 inches, while Crescent were set 

 36x36 inches and all trained in matted rows. 

 The very unfavorable drouth of 1887 de- 

 tracted from the value of the experiment— 

 the yield was light and in the following pro- 

 portions: 



Plat No. 1. 56-100 Crescents, same as both the 

 other kinds. 



Plat No. 2. 42-100 Crescents, nearly equal both 

 the other kinds. 



Plat No. 3. 33-100 Crescents, more than both 

 the other kinds. 



Plat No. 4. 33-100 Crescents, much more than 

 both the other kinds. 



The picking was from .June 7th to 28th; 

 nine pickings and correctly kept. 



In 1886, I also applied 200 pounds of com- 

 mercial bone meal on a plantation .30 rods 

 long, 13 rows wide— taking three rods across 

 the patch, then skipping three rods and ap- 

 plying 20 pounds bone meal on every alter- 

 nate three rods,— again thedrouth may have 

 interfered with the resiilt; (still the fertilizer 

 did not show on the 350 bushels of Onions 

 taken this year from the same ground), 

 there was no perceptible difference on the 

 Strawberries where the bone was applied 

 and where it was not. This was on soil 

 five years from the forest and no manure 

 having been previously used, though a good 

 dressing was applied of stable manure for 

 the Onions that followed. 



In 1887, I applied bone meal fertilizers 

 (prepared like the 200 pounds used in 1886, 

 especially for Strawberries), on 13 rows, 19 

 rows long of spring planting all one kind, 

 Jessie. This was on land well manured 

 with barn yard manures. I put 14 quarts on 

 every other row and left every other row 

 without; the application was made .June 

 34th, after the plants had commenced form- 

 ing matted rows ; the best of care was given 

 this pet plantatioi} — it was a little too heav- 

 ily mulched for winter and some rows 

 showed loss, but the growth of plants last 

 season or the stand and yield of 

 fruit this, could not be distin- 

 guished one row from the other, 

 except on the end of two rows 

 whei-e there was applied addi- 

 tional fertilizer Nov. 7th. 



So that, from my feeble experi- 

 ments on light prairie loam bor- 

 dering rich black Oak and Hazel 

 ^ brush soil, I can see no good in 

 the application of bone fertilizers, 

 potash or leached ashes for Straw- 

 berries. I have not tried green 

 manuring but would prefer Clover 

 to any other crop. 



LACHENALIA PALLIDA. 



our state Board of Horticulture, in 1886, I 

 planted four plats, three square rods each, 

 each plat one rod Wilson, one rod Manches- 

 ter, one rod Crescent, the Wilson coming 

 between the two pistillates. On these plats 

 I applied fertilizer as follows : 



Regarding Pear Blight. 



A recent article on the subject 

 of Pear or Fire Blight, which 

 found its way into these columns 

 has had the effect of bringing out 

 numerous other Articles on the 

 same subject. This might have 

 been expected, for it is well known 

 that no other subject excites dis- 

 cussion among fruit growers read- 

 ily as this old and fertile one. It is also 

 as well known that little if any direct gain 

 can come from a general discussion of this 

 subject, hence we concluded, instead of pub- 

 lishing the various opinions recently received 

 to lay before our readers, at the risk of re- 



peating ourselves, some of the valuable 

 conclusions arrived at as a result of the 

 extended experiments and microscopical 

 investigations concerning this disease, made 

 by Profs, Arthur, Burrill, and others in re- 

 cent years. Our quotations are drawn from 

 the writings of these gentlemen as they 

 have appeared in the reports of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for 1886, and of New 

 York State Experiment Station Work, for 

 the years 1884 to 1886, to which reports the 



Specimen from a Fruit Album, see opposite page. 



reader is referred for further statements 

 concerning the disease. 



The Cause of Pear Blight. The cause 

 of Pear Blight, as established by the last 

 seven years of research, is connected with 

 the activity of germs, and the malady be- 

 longs to the category of germ diseases, now 

 definitely proven to occur both among ani- 

 mals and plants. The germs causing blight, 

 are borne from place to place, and from tree 

 to tree, by the atmosphere, which is never 

 so quiet but that its movements are suffi- 

 cient to keep such impalpable bodies afloat. 

 Upon the germs finding entrance to the 

 juices of the plant, the disease is set up in a 

 more or less virulent form. 



Investigation. Bacteria were first no- 

 ticed in connection with Pear Blight, by 

 Prof. T. J. Burrill in 1877, but no experi- 

 ments were undertaken till 1880. He then 

 made an extended series of careful inocula- 

 tion, which resulted in showing that the 

 disease could be easily communicated from 

 one Pear tree to another, by introducing in 

 healthy tissues a little of the exudation from 

 a diseased part, and in the same manner 

 could be communicated to the Apple and 

 Quince. Experiments were also tried to 

 determine how the disease is naturally pro- 

 pagated from tree to tree, tying diseased 

 branches into healthy trees, and smearing 

 the uninjured surface of stems and leaves 

 with the exudation used in inoculations, but 

 with purely negative results. 



Proof that Specific Bacteria cause 

 Pear Blight, (a) Bacteria are found in 

 great abundance in actively blighting tis- 

 sues, so as to be easily demonstrable to the 

 naked eye, and occur in less abundance in 

 proportion as the disease is less active, (h) 

 The disease may be introduced into healthy 

 tissue by inoculation with germs from dis- 

 eased tissue, (c) It is communicated with 

 equal certainty when the germs are sepa- 

 rated from all accompanying juices of the 

 disesised tissue by a series of fractional cul- 

 tures, (d) Per contra, it is not communi- 

 cated by the juices of the disease, after the 

 germs are removed by filtration, (c) The 

 germs connected with the disease constitute 

 a single species, which is essential to success- 

 ful inoculation. (/) Per contra, the numer- 

 ous other species of earth, air, and water 

 are not found to a noticeable extent in con- 

 nection with the disease, and cannot be 



