The Canadian Hokiiculturisi. 107 



of meal per head. In the spring ihey will want something less than this, in the 

 fall something more. If these animals take ten per cent, of the manurial value 

 from their food for their natural growth, there will still be left scattered on the 

 land in solid and licjuid droppings, 228 pounds of nitrogen, 146 pounds of pot- 

 ash and 90 pounds of phosphoric acid : or 22.8, 14.6 and nine pounds respec- 

 tively per acre. 



One hundred and fifty bushels of apples- that is enough to the acre if they 

 are good enough, and too many of them are poor — contain about eight pounds of 

 nitrogen and twenty-four pounds of ash, thirteen pounds of which is potash, and 

 one pound of phosphoric acid, worth together $1.86. 



How much the trees will require for increased growth, how many of the leaves 

 will be blown away, how much nitrogen will escape by leaching, and how much 

 will be restored by the clover-roots and how much of the fertility produced by 

 feeding the bran and meal the trees will be able to readily secure, neither the 

 theorist nor the practical man can tell. No charge should be made the sheep 

 for the grass, as the work they will perform in transforming the poor apples and 

 the worms into valuable fertilizers will be a fair equivalent for it. 



Summing up the case, we have the orchard raised through skill and the 

 unaided fertility of the soil. The draft made on the land by the production of 

 apples and the necessary growth of wood, and the losses of fertility which may 

 occur, are to be fully met by restoring to each acre yearly, through feeding animals 

 upon it, some twenty-three pounds of nitrogen for the eight pounds removed by 

 the apples, fourteen and a half pounds of potash for the thirteen removed, and 

 nine pounds of phosphoric acid to replace the one carried off. It will be seen 

 readily that if there is any deficiency it is likely to be in potash, as scarcely more 

 is returned to the soil than is removed by the fruit ; so a dressing of potash is 

 likely to not only improve the cjuality, but the color and aroma of the fruit as 

 well. 



The hundred sheep would consume in five months at pasture, 3,750 pounds 

 oil-meal, worth $28.00 per ton, and a like amount of bran at $17.00 per ton, and 

 the two would cost together, $82.50. The value of the plant-food left on the soil 

 computed at commercial prices, would be $43.07 ; but whether it is really worth 

 that or not no one can tell. Can a hundred lean sheep, purchased in the spring, 

 be made to gain $100.00 in value in five months of grazing and grain-feeding 

 with a half pound of meal per day per sheep, or with the feeding of three-fourth;» 

 of a pound, if thought advisable ? I cannot an.swer these questions accurately 

 myself, and I leave them for your consideration. Yet I believe that the 

 orchardist is growing too much wood, too many apple seeds, too many apples, 

 too poor apples, too many badly colored and badly flavored apples, and this nia\- 

 be remedied by heading back the trees in lieu of thinning them, and by furnish- 

 mg to the bearing orchard yearly a reasonable amount of available plant-food, 

 largely through the aid of plants and animals. I am well aware that the methods 



