THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



375 



SHALL WE RAISE WOOD OR FRUIT IN THE 

 ORCHARD? 



Clean culture in the orchard, supplemented by cover 

 crops during the latter part of the season, is corning into 

 more general use. The effect of the clean culture is to ren- 

 der the soil nitrogen available more rapidly than the min- 

 eral ingredients. Hence the tendency of trees to make too 

 much growth of wood and foliage and to come into bearing 

 late. Where leguminous crops are used for cover this effect 

 is even more marked. The growth of legumes or weeds at 

 the time the fruit is making its most rapid growth deprives 

 the tree of needed minerals at the most critical time. 



The whole tendency of the methods of orchard manage- 

 ment most frequently advocated in both arid and humid 

 regions is to furnish nitrogen in excess of the proper amounts 

 of minerals. Ordinary fruit trees require plant food in the 

 following proportions : 



Nitrogen 100 



Phosphoric acid 27 



Potash 114 



Different kinds of fruit require about the same propor- 

 tions, but require different quantities per acre. 



The peach requires the most, more than double the 

 amount required by pears and plums. The apple and quinces 

 require about two-thirds as much as peaches. 



To supply the plant food for an acre of apples requires 

 51 pounds of nitrogen, 14 pounds phosphoric acid, and 55 

 pounds potash. Most of the nitrogen is, and should be, de- 

 rived from crops plowed under. If the foliage of the trees 

 is not of good color a dressing of 100 to 200 pounds per acre 

 of nitrate of soda will restore it. 



Owing to the fact that orcharding is continuous crop- 

 ping; of the most radical class, it is necessary to not only fur- 

 nish plant food, but to furnish the right kinds at the right 

 time. This can not be done by farmyard manure alone, for it 

 carries too much nitrogen in proportion to its minerals and 

 the minerals in manure are too slowly available. 



Hence in the most successful and most profitable orchard 

 work large quantities of phosphoric acid and potash are used. 

 Usually more phosphoric acid is used than the trees actually 

 take up. But until the ground is well supplied with phos- 

 phates it is well to use a small excess, so that there may_be 

 plenty ready at hand during the best part of the growing 

 season. One hundred pounds of acid phosphate, _or 55 

 pounds of steamed bone would furnish the phosphoric acid 

 for an acre of apples. Double these amounts are generally 

 used, especially on clays where the soil supply of phosphoric 

 acid is very limited. 



The soil's content of potash varies widely, but under 

 the usual conditions of producing orchards there are few 

 cases where the very small amount of really available soil 

 potash is not pretty well used up before the trees should be 

 in full bearing. One hundred and ten pounds of muriate of 

 potash or of sulphate of potash will supply the potash for 

 an acre for one year. 



While there is doubtless much difference between varieties 

 in the matter of intermittent yielding, experience has shown 

 that proper feeding of orchards will give annual crops, and 

 while the crops in off years may not be _as great as in fat 

 years, the increased price in the off year is such as to make 

 the properly fed and tended orchard a source of steady an- 

 nual income. 



There are always a lot of people who think it is not 

 necessary to fertilize any crop. We are not now consider- 

 ing the necessity of the case, but whether it will pay. 



Trees need a good supply of available food during a com- 

 peratively small part of the year. By using the right amounts 

 and right kinds we may expect better fruit on trees that 

 come into bearing earlier, bear more steadily and live longer. 

 If we expect to get the most profit out of the outlay for 

 irrigation, cultivation and spraying, we must feed the trees. 

 You can't get the most work out of a man by tickling his 

 toes and giving him shower baths. He needs some food, and 

 so does a tree. 



H. A. WESTON. 



1 



The Home 



BEAUTIFYING HOME WITH FLOWERS. 



Nothing is more desirable than to have one's home made 

 attractive with the freely offered lavishness of Nature. Or- 

 namental trees and flowers are provided for us, and we who 

 are ourselves masters of the supply of moisture required by 

 our plants should surely take advantage of nature's gifts 

 and make our home surroundings delightful. The following 

 clipping on fall flowers should be helpful : 



Keeping Up the Garden This Fall. 



"Plenty of fall-flowering plants should be in every gar- 

 den. There can be no doubt about that. And there are 

 plenty of them, too, ready to meet winter face to face and 

 not to yield until he actually annihilates them with his icy 

 breath. Yet they are not very much in evidence in the aver- 

 age garden, possibly because they are not so well known as 

 they deserve to be. 



"First on the list, I think, I should place the Japanese 

 windflower, or anemone Anemone Japonica in several va- 

 rieties. Their exquisite beauty would distinguish them at 

 any season of the year. They begin to blossom in August, 

 and are not therefore, strictly speaking, only fall bloomers, 

 but summer and fall, which is better yet. They continue 

 until severe frosts cut them down. Their colors are ex- 

 tremely delicate and yet clear, ranging from rosy red to 

 purest white. Probably the best selection would comprise 

 Anemone Japonica, Anemone Japonica, variety Alba, and 

 Anemone Japonica, variety Queen Charlotte. The usual 

 height of the plants is about two feet. They should always 

 be massed, whether planted in a border by themselves or in 

 front of shrubbery. Fifty of them are not too many to plant 

 together for the best effect." From "The Best Plants for 

 Fall Flowering," by Ina G. Tabor, in the September Circle. 



The Marriage License. 

 You got back, massa, from de town? 

 You fetch my ba'yage license down? 

 Dem license read for Sal and me? 

 Dat's a pity, massa, 'caze you see, 

 Since you been gone I change my min' 

 And conclude I'll marry Adeline 

 Des you take dem license and change de name 

 And lemme ma'y on 'em all de same. 

 You can't do dat? Cost me two dollars mo'? 

 Oh, no, sah, massa ! No, sah, no ! 

 Des leave de name dat's writ dar, Sal's, 

 'Caze dar ain't two dollars diffunce 'twixt dem gals. 

 Martha Young, in The Circle. 



Send $2.50 lor The Irrigation Age 

 I year, and the Primer of Irrigation 



Fruit as a Food and Medicine. By Dr. J. P. H. Brown, 

 Before Georgia Horticultural Society. 



The Creator in His wonderful economy always constructs 

 with a purpose. He has distributed fruits all over the earth, 

 and has caused them to mature at a season when the solid and 

 carbonaceous foods are not needed by the body. The latter, 

 when taken during the warm season, only clog and obstruct 

 the vital machinery, resulting in disease; whereas, the juicy, 

 stimulating properties of fruits keep the vital forces properly 

 balanced and regulated. 



Probably the most generally diffused fruit is the apple. 

 According to chemical analysis, this fruit has 18 per cent 

 solid matter and 80 per cent water, while milk has only 13 

 per cent solid matter, and oysters the same. Cabbage, the 

 great stand-by of the laboring man, has only 8 per cent solid 

 matter and 92 per cent water. Pears have about the same 

 amount of solid matter as apples. Peaches have 20 per cent 

 solid matter and 80 per cent water; while pork has only 24 

 per cent solid matter. We see, therefore, that fruits are 

 richer food than milk or oysters, and approximate that of 

 pork. Yet the laboring man thinks that he must have his 

 bacon and that he cannot work without it. 



