374 



The Canadian Horticulturist. 



FEEDING OUR FRUIT AND VEGETABLE CROPS. 



OMPLAINTS about the ineffectiveness of applications of 

 bone meal or other plain phosphates or superphosphates 

 to orchards, vineyards, small fruit patches and vegetable 

 gardens are nothing at all uncommon. Yet such negative 

 results are just the ones that should have been expected. 

 Why? Because the substances named have little or nothing 



of value, besides phosphoric acid, of which fruit and garden crops require very 



small quantities. 



The following table will show, approximately, what great demands for potash 



fruit and vegetable crops are making on the soil. This table gives the number 



of pounds of the principal plant foods removed in a full crop. 



Full Crop, per Acrk. 



Nitrogen, 



LBS. 



Potash, 



LBS. 



Phos. Acid. 



LBS. 



Apples, 15 tons 30 



Pears, 10 tons 12 



Plums, 2 tons 16 



Grapes, 4 tons 13 



Berries, 1^ tons . 



Sugar Beets, 20 tons .... . . . 110 



Carrrots, 20 tims .... 70 



Mangolds, 20 tons 90 



Turnips, 20 tons 75 



Onions . 32 



3 

 10 



2 

 12 



2i 

 12 

 24 

 18 

 25 

 23 



In all this we have not yet taken any account of the plant foods that have 

 gone into the foliage and the wood of the trees and bushes. Here again potash 

 is just the substance needed in considerable quantity. The leaves dropping in 

 autumn may remain on the ground under the trees and bushes, and thus return 

 their constituents to the soil ; or they may be blown away by the autumn gales 

 into fence corners, road sides and ditches, and thus be lost to the soil. The 

 prunings also may be burned up in the orchard or fruit patch, giving their min- 

 eral constituents back to the soil ; or they may be carted off and burned in some 

 back field, where the ashes will do no good to the orchard. Usually there is 

 from these sources at least some loss, chiefly in potash, that, together with what 

 the fruit crop has taken off, will have to be made good again by application of 

 manure. 



The table here given may not be more than approximately correct, yet it 

 shows that in fruit crops we remove from the soil an amount of potash, ten, fif- 

 teen, and often more times as large as that of phosphoric acid. Many farmers 

 imagine that orchards need no manuring. Perhaps a crop of grass, with all its 



