198 The Connecticut Pomological Society 



or a cost equivalent to g cents per basket for the increased 



yields. 



2. That manuring or fertih'zing extends the profitable bear- 

 ing period of the trees. On the unmanured plot the yield was 

 unprofitable after 1891, four crops having been secured, the 

 average yield per acre for 1892, 1893 ^"d 1894 being only 37 

 baskets per year, a yield so small as to warrant the removal of 

 the orchard. The average yield of the manured plots was 159 

 baskets per acre, or 132 baskets more than from the unmanured 

 plots during the first four crop years. On the fertilized plots 

 good crops were secured for three years after the trees on the 

 unmanured plots had practically ceased to bear. 



3. That fertilizers or manures containing all the elements 

 of plant-food, viz., nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, are 

 more useful than single elements or combinations of two ele- 

 ments. The average yield per acre per year for Plots 9 and 11, 

 which received a complete manure, was 250 baskets; the aver- 

 age yield for a combination of two elements was 188 baskets, 

 and the average for single elements was 133 baskets. The 

 result is not in accordance with the recommendations for ma- 

 nuring peach trees, the claim being that nitrogen has a tendency 

 to too greatly stimulate leaf-growth. A combination of the 

 minerals, phosphoric acid and potash only, however, showed 

 better results than a combination of either phosphoric acid or 

 potash with nitrogen, and indicates that the best use of nitrogen 

 is in connection with an abundance of both the mineral ele- 

 ments, phosphoric acid and potash. 



4. That chemical fertilizers are more profitable than yard 

 manure. The yield from Plot 11, upon which barnyard manure 

 was applied, was 2,064.4 baskets per acre, or an average of 258 

 per year. The total yield from Plot 9 was 1,939.8 baskets per 

 acre, or an average of 242.5 per year. 



The manure cost $30 per acre, and the chemical manure 

 $10.72; the increased yield of 15.5 baskets was, therefore, 

 secured at a coast of $19.28, or at the rate of $1.25 per basket; 

 stated in terms of cost of manure per basket of fruit, the fruit 

 on Plot II from yard manure cost 11.6 cents per basket, and on 

 Plot 9 chemical manure cost 4.4 cents. 



Some years ago, at one of the Pomological Society's meet- 



