64 BUSH-FBUITS 



The quality of ordinary stable -manure is very uncer- 

 tain, owing to differences in methods of feeding and in 

 treatment which the manure receives after it is made. 

 It commonly contains an excess of nitrogen. This, 

 though by far the most expensive element of plant 

 fertilit3% and one easily lost by leaching and evaporation, 

 is required in only limited quantities in the production 

 of fruit. The chances are, therefore, that in the use 

 of large quantities of stable -manure this expensive 

 element is wasted. An excess of organic nitrogen may 

 also help to deplete the soil of potash. When changed 

 to nitric acid it combines with potash and other bases 

 which leach away if not taken up by plants, thus deplet- 

 ing the soil of basic ingredients. The use of less 

 manure, supplemented with chemicals containing phos- 

 phoric acid and potash, is often wiser. 



According to the analysis of raspberries published 

 from Washington* a crop of one hundred bushels of 

 raspberries would remove only about six pounds of ni- 

 trogen, twenty pounds of phosphoric acid and fourteen 

 pounds of potash from the soil. This being true, the 

 importance of fertilizers may be easily overestimated. 

 Fifty pounds of nitrate of soda or slightly more of dried 

 blood, one hundred and fifty pounds of acid phosphate 

 and fifty pounds of muriate of potash would more than 

 supply this need. The unavoidable losses in the soil 

 make it necessary to furnish more than the plants take 

 away ; yet this may serve as a suggestion regarding 

 the possible demands. The individual qualities of the 



*Year-Book, Dept. of Agr., 1895: 568. 



