The Canadian Horticulturist. 



67 



STARVING ORCHARDS. 



IT is a very common mistake of growers of the apple and pear to suppose that they 

 need very little manure. While still young they are kept thrifty by manure 

 applied to the crops, but when once they reach bearing age they are left to shift 

 for themselves, and when they cease to grow with any vigor or to yield scanty 

 crops of scrubs, he blames the orchard for its barrenness when he should blame 

 himself for starving it. 



It has been stated on very good authority, that a crop of one hundred bar- 

 rels of apples per acre, draws as heavily upon the soil as a crop of one hundred 

 bushels of wheat. In support of this, we call the attention of our readers to the follow- 

 ing table, showing the amounts of the most important fertilizing elements which 

 are withdrawn by three of our most common fruits. The first line for example, 

 shows that 1000 pounds of apple substance contains ^0% of a pound of potash, 

 and, therefore, a crop of 20,000 pounds takes from an acre twenty times that 

 amount, or sixteen pounds of potash. 



But the great question is, how to get enough manure to feed these orchards ; 

 for that from the barnyard is altogether insufficient. Well, the commercial 

 fertilizers are excellent and even 200 to 300 pounds per acre will have a marked 

 effect, while 600 pounds per acre is none too much. 



The cheapest fertilizer for orchards on sandy loam is our common wood- 

 ashes. Our American friends appreciate their value and are buying Canadian 

 ashes by the car load to enrich their orchards and gardens. Canadians so little 

 value them that they sell at five cents a bushel to speculators, and then they 



