The Canadian Horticulturist. 375 



large amount of potash, is taken off besides. With such great and incessant 

 drain on the potash supply, it will not be long before that supply is getting too 

 short to allow healthy growth of tree, vine or bush, and a full crop of fruit. 



Phosphoric acid is used in only small quantities. For these reasons bone 

 meal, phosphates, etc., alone, are not what is wanted for a fruit tree manure. 

 Potash is needed more than any other substances, and unleached wood ashes is 

 one of the best forms, if not the very best, in which this can be applied. Where 

 good ashes can be bought at ten to fifteen cents a bushel, we will not often be 

 able to get a better or cheaper fertilizer. 



Prof. C. C. James, of Ontario, Canada, recommended at a recent fruit growers' 

 meeting the following formula for compounding a cheap and effective orchard 

 fertilizer : 



40 bushels of unleached ashes. 

 100 pounds of crushed or ground bone. 

 100 pounds of sulphate of ammonia, or nitrate of soda. 

 This quantity is to be applied at least once in two or three years. It supplies 

 about 120 pounds of potash, 23 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 20 pounds of 

 nitrogen. 



Nitrogen, if such be needed in greater quantities, can be obtained in a much 

 cheaper way by the help of crops that are nitrogen gatherers (such as clovers and 

 peas, which should be lefton the ground to decay), than by outside applications. 

 In a majority of cases, perhaps, yard manure is the only form in which plant 

 food is ever given back to the orchard or fruit garden. Twelve tons of it will 

 furnish the 120 pounds of potash needed, but also two or three times as much 

 phosphoric acid and nitrogen, as required for the crops. It will hardly be good 

 economy, therefore, to use yard manure exclusively, especially if we should have 

 to purchase it at anything like full value. The cheaper way would be to apply 

 a smaller quantity of yard manure, say one-half of the named quantity, or six 

 tons, every second or third year, and add to it the missing 60 pounds of potash 

 in the form of unleached wood ashes, corn-cob ashes, cotton seed hull ashes, 

 muriate of potash, sulphate of potash, kainit, etc. Tobacco refuse may also 

 come handy as a source of potash in this emergency. Tobacco dust can be 

 applied directly to the soil ; stems may be either used as mulch, or composted 

 with the yard manure. My ration for the yard manure and potash salts combine 

 would be six tons of the former, and 120 pounds of muriate or sulphate of pot- 

 ash, or 500 pounds of kainit ; and would prefer to apply this every second year 

 at least. 



We should fully understand, however, that simple phosphates alone are no 

 manure for fruit crops. Potash, on the other hand, is the chief substance needed, 

 and we cannot easily apply it in too large doses for fruits. A sufficiency of pot- 

 ash makes bush and tree fruits finer, sweeter, better in flavor, and renders the 

 wood more resistent to severe cold. 



