Tenth Annual Meeting 197 



ment on the life and growth of the trees or on their bearing 

 capacity. 



I can only tell you what appears to be the state of things 

 now . 



1. We see no efifect from the lime on either the yield or 

 quality of fruit. 



2. The trees where cottonseed meal was applied seem to 

 have made a little better growth than where no nitrogenous 

 fertilizer or where crimson clover was used. The yield of 

 peaches was also slightly larger. 



3. Where 400 pounds per acre of muriate was used the crop 

 for two years was larger than where 200 was used, and still 

 larger where 800 was applied. 



4. We see no difference in quality of fruit and scarcely any 

 in yield where sulphate of potash was used instead of muriate. 



The most thorough and conclusive experiment on the matter 

 of fertilizers for peach orchards, and the only one that 1 know 

 of, carried through a period long enough to show fully the 

 effects of these fertilizers, was made in New Jersey, beginning 

 in 1884 and ending ten years later in a wind-storm which 

 partially destroyed the orchard. 



Nitrate of soda 150 pounds per acre, acid phosphate 350 

 pounds per acre, and muriate of potash 150 pounds per acre, 

 were tried separately and in combination on separate plots, as 

 well as plaster alone and stable manure, twenty two -horse loads 

 per acre by itself and also with lime. 



The final conclusion, after ten years' work and seven crops, 

 is as follows : 



I. That it pays to manure orchards on land of medium 

 fertility. The soil in this experiment was decomposed trap 

 rock, with a clayey subsoil and good natural drainage. The 

 crops raised in 1884 indicated medium fertility, the unmanured 

 plots yielding 41 bushels of shelled corn per acre. The total 

 yield of fruit on the unmanured plot from 1887 to 1894, inclu- 

 sive, was 636.7 baskets per acre, or an average of 80 baskets 

 per year. The average yield on all of the fertilized plots, in- 

 cluding the plaster, was 1,480 baskets per acre, or an average of 

 over 185 baskets per year, an increase of 131 per cent. The 

 average cost of manure for all of the plots was $9.43 per acre, 



