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and coiling around each particle. When trees are manured by 

 means of insoluble fertilisers, dig with the spade, some three to four 

 feet from the stem, three trenches a foot deep and several feet long, 

 in the form of a triangle ; place the manure at the bottom of these 

 trenches and cover up with soil. When manure is forked into the 

 ground, it should not be applied right against the bole of the tree, 

 but a small distance away. The plate in the article on mulching 

 illustrates the distribution of the main roots and of the rootlets in 

 the ground. The first, whose main functions is to brace up and 

 support the structure, are fairly barren of rootlets ; they give rise 

 to branch roots which, in their turn, carry towards their periphery 

 the fibrous rootlets, which, are in a true sense the feeding mouths 

 of the plant, and absorb the moisture and food required by the 

 growing tissues. The diagram shows where water and manure 

 should be applied and where mulching does most good. 



EXPERIMENT FOR YOURSELVES. 



Chemical analysis of a soil will indicate on broad lines the 

 wealth or the poorness of a given soil, but its teachings are in no wise 

 as accurate as those derived from personal observation drawn from 

 the result of local experiments. Growers can, with little or no trouble, 

 find out for them selves the elements that are more urgently required by 

 their trees. For this purpose, a row or two are set apart, every third 

 tree is manured in some manner or other ; the trees on each side of it 

 are left unmanured, as witnesses to show by comparison whether a 

 manured tree greatly differs from them or not. Some form of 

 nitrogenous manure may be applied to one or more of the trees 

 in the experimental line ; then some form of phosphatic manure to 

 one or more others ; then again, some form of potassic manure to 

 one or more trees. The experiment can further be widened by 

 combining together for testing on some fresh trees any two of the 

 manures used singly on the first lot of trees, and finally more trees 

 are tested with a complete fertiliser, resulting from the combination 

 of the three fertilisers used singly, or of any fertilisers containing 

 in some available form the three elements nitrogen, phosphoric 

 acid, and potash. 



One thing the grower must well penetrate his mind with, that 

 crops, like animals, must be generously fed to keep healthy and bear 

 abundant crops. Just as the digestive organs of the animal assimilate 

 the nourishment, of its body, so the assimilatingorgans of plants utilise 

 the food placed within their reach. Like the animal also, they require 

 a " complete ration;" that is to say, one with no needful element of 

 plant food lacking, and when well fed the plant will thrive, 

 produce without effort, and withstand and offer no encouragement to 

 the numerous parasitic pests that assail our cultivated crops. 

 Spraying and manuring operate conjointly, and well-fed trees, once 

 freed from parasites, remain clean without further dressing for a 

 very long time. The varying state of health and vigour in even a 

 small 10-acre orchard, when the climatic conditions are otherwise 

 alike, point out to variations in the constituents of the soil. 



