38 



often the case, this requires some time to decay and get into soluble 

 condition so that the roots can take it up, but when this has taken 

 place it furnishes a large amount of highly nitrogenous food which 

 tends to stimulate a very strong wood growth late in the season. The 

 trees having the root systems such as we have described, long and 

 spreading, and having sent out an abundance of feeding roots all 

 along these- original main roots in response to improved conditions, 

 are sure to take up an unusual amount of this plant food, much more 

 than trees which have had regular care from the beginning, and which 

 therefore have more compact root systems. The result is that the 

 growth is continued very late in the season, that the new layer of 

 tissue between the old bark and wood does not ripen up in the autumn 

 as it should, and that when cold weather comes on it is no better 

 fitted to withstand freezing than a potato or a cabbage, and is destroyed 

 during the winter. Soon after this the bark separates from the wood, 

 and the tree dies if the bark has been killed all round, or is seriously 

 weakened if only part way. For these reasons, as I said in the begin- 

 ning, I should advise withholding nitrogenous fertilizers almost 

 entirely the first season. If the soil has any fertility to it at all the 

 cultivation and consequent improved physical condition will liberate 

 all the nitrogen that the trees need to make an entirely satisfactory 

 growth. 



But of course these arguments do not apply to other fertilizers, and 

 I should use them freely. I should begin with a half ton per acre of 

 lime. It has been my observation that very few old orchards indeed 

 will not respond wonderfully to such an application. We need not 

 discuss the usual methods of determining whether lime is needed, 

 but I am satisfied that even when such tests as litmus paper, for 

 example, fail to indicate a sourness in the soil, an application of a half 

 ton of hme per acre will still be very beneficial to the trees. With 

 apples particularly, but with all fruits more or less, an abundance of 

 lime gives a shorter, stockier growth of wood, and fruit which, though 

 perhaps a little smaller, is more firm, better keeping and more highly 

 colored. This lime application need not be made every year, of course , 

 but I should begin with it and should repeat it once in four or five 

 years. 



In addition to this I should give a yearly application of potash and 

 phosphoric acid. For the former, experiments at the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural College seem to indicate that the low-grade sulphate is 

 the best form. If this is used 400 or 500 pounds ought to be applied 

 per acre per year, and it is better applied as early in the season as 

 possible and ploughed under. I should favor ploughing under all 

 fertilizers, as it gets them down where the feeding roots are, and where 

 they will be under such conditions as to make them most quickly 

 available. Of course this is less important with the readily soluble 

 fertilizers, but even with these I should favor turning them under. 



