No. 4.] THE NEW ORCHARD. 49 



an old tree where the small branches have been cleaned off 

 so that it isn't paying, so that you are getting no return 

 from that section of the tree, the only way you can get it 

 back is by developing the water sprouts and developing fruit 

 spurs on the sides of those, and after those come up go right 

 down to perhaps within two or three inches and make them 

 throw outside shoots, and the tree will start bearing, and if 

 we find that it isn't doing as well as it should, we cut them 

 out. 



Mr. Gleason. I would like to ask the professor what fer- 

 tilizer he uses on these orchards. 



Professor Sears. I might say that we very strongly be- 

 lieve in the practice of fertilizing orchards, and those of you 

 who have kept track of the recent discussions on fertilization 

 know that the results in the different stations have been very 

 varied. They have run all the way from the Pennsylvania 

 station, which has shown very marked advantages from 

 fertilization, to the work at Geneva, IST. Y., where they 

 concluded that they didn't find any virtue in it, and not 

 only that, but they didn't get the money back that it cost 

 to put the fertilizer on. There is one other experiment 

 that ought to be recorded, and that is at Amherst, where 

 we have planted primarily to test the advantage of dif^ 

 ferent forms of fertilization by potash. I won't enter into 

 that question now, but, incidentally, in the center of that 

 orchard was a block that didn't receive any fertilizer, and 

 the result has been that that block which didn't receive 

 any at all has been way behind the other blocks. ISTo matter 

 what fertilizer has been put on, those others have been way 

 ahead. To my mind, that, and the Pennsylvania station ex- 

 periment, are proof enough that under most circumstances 

 fertilization is a good thing, and that has been the way in 

 which we have handled our orchard. We have not only put 

 on nitrogen for our young trees to start off with, but we 

 have gone on the assumption that it was a good thing and 

 would encourage them in coming into bearing. We have 

 furnished also potash and phosphoric acid for our young 

 trees. We have used nitrate of soda, a couple of ounces, 

 perhaps, to each tree, and acid phosphate and high-grade 



