68 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



You may give a pig all of some kinds of food it can eat, 

 but if you do not give it some corn it will not get fat. If you 

 do not give fruit trees the kind of plant food which they require 

 you will not get fine fruits. 



This gentleman is evidently getting the plant food that his 

 trees want, but he says he is not feeding his orchard. Can 

 we raise apples in Connecticut on our worn-out soil without 

 plant food? Can we set out an orchard and let the grass grow 

 in it on most of our lands, and without plant food of some kind 

 will our land grow clover without petering out the soil? Very 

 few soils can do it until we apply fertilizers. 



He says that he puts back all the grass in the way of grass. 

 What he takes out of the soil is apples. He may put on his 

 vegetable matter and mow his grass and keep it there, but in 

 time unless he has got an inexhaustible supply of plant food 

 he adds nothing to his soil. He adds nothing, but he is taking 

 out apples all the time. If he adds anything he adds nitrogen, 

 which he is opposed to. In the decomposition of that vege- 

 table matter he gets nitrogen and he gets potash and he gets 

 phosphoric acid. But where does that come from? It comes 

 out of the very soil that the grass does. 



Now so long as the plant food in that soil keeps up he will 

 have apples, and he will have them by mowing his grass and 

 putting it back again. It is an easy way. It's a cheap way. 

 But on our Connecticut soils, on the most of our soils let us 

 not forget to put on the materials that the apples want. If we 

 do that we shall be safe. Under his method I think we shall 

 be unsafe. Another element in his success is being able to 

 get rid of the enemies of the apple. He says that he sprays 

 three times any way and that sometimes he sprays five or six 

 times a year. We can get apples in Connecticut as good as he 

 has in New York State if we are as careful as that. All we 

 want is the food, and the soil, and tlie trees. }'ut the food 

 into the soil and nature will place it in the apples. 



Mr. HrrcHiNcs : I think there is potash and ])hosphoric acid 

 enough in a great many soils if it is handled right. I do not 

 have any trouble in getting the very best color and my method 

 is cheaper than by buying artificial stimulants to o])tain it. 



Prof. Powki.l: I h()])e you will excuse me, Mr. President, for 

 talking so nnich, but T just want to say one thing. I have 



