MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 3 



In orchard renovation by proper culture, spraying, pruning, 

 and fertilizing it was found wholly practicable to take an old, 

 unprofitaWe, rapidly degenerating apple orchard and (i) bring 

 that orchard into profitable bearing; (2) To force Baldwin 

 trees to produce fruit each year; (3) to produce profitable crops 

 of fruits by the use of "chemicals" only, in connection with 

 intelligent culture, pruning and spraying. It was further shown 

 (4) that upon the particular soil involved all expenditures for 

 fertilizer, unless these fertilizers contained some nitrogen, was 

 an absolute waste of money; (5) that apparently the excessive 

 use of nitrogen, in the absence of potash and phosphoric acid, 

 was distinctly injurious to the fruit; and (6) that as a corollary 

 to the other points, that the best results are obtained from a 

 complete well balanced fertilizer, rather than from an excess of 

 any one element. 



A four year trial with Fisher Formula seemed to justify the 

 following tentative conclusions, (i) The percentage of nitro- 

 gen in the Fisher Formula is too high for the best results. 

 (2) On these soils the Fisher Formula is unnecessarily expen- 

 sive and wasteful of available nitrogen. (3) A fertilizer carry- 

 ing about 3 per cent of nitrogen, 6 per cent of available phos- 

 phoric acid and 8 per cent of potash, with a supply of humus in 

 the form of cover crops or mulch is the most satisfactory for 

 general orchard use for a term of years. 



Apple Work at High moor Farm. 



Highmoor Farm was purchased for the use of the Station in 

 the summer of 1909. The work of the first season was entirely 

 preparatory. From the beginning three lines of apple studies 

 have stood out as the important ones to be undertaken at High- 

 moor Farm. These are orchard management, investigations 

 upon apple enemies and investigations in apple propagation and 

 growth. Orchard management covers such questions as culti- 

 vation, fertilization, pruning, cover crops, thinning of fruit, and 

 protection from injurious insects and fungi. These are practi- 

 cal questions and call for men experienced in the care of or- 

 chards and familiar with the grosser field experiments. The 

 apple diseases require the expert skilled in plant pathology. To 

 be of real permanent value these call for more than superficial 



