2 maine agricultural experiment station. i916. 



Fertilizer Experiments on Apple Trees at High moor 



Farm. 



As it is pretty generally known, when the State purchased 

 Highmoor Farm it had something over 3,500 apple trees upon 

 it. These trees were about twenty-rive years old, but for the 

 most part had been completely neglected, as regards pruning, 

 fertilization, culture and spraying. The first season that the 

 Station had the farm the orchards were plowed, cultivated and 

 sprayed. Pruning was begun and has been continued until at 

 the present time the orchards are in pretty fair shape. It was, 

 of course, not desirable or practical to thin the trees out at the 

 start to where they should be at the end, but the pruning while 

 rather severe each year has been gradually decreased in amount. 



The orchards were annually fertilized at the rate of 1,000 

 pounds per acre of a commercial fertilizer carrying 4 per cent 

 of nitrogen, 8 per cent of available phosphoric acid and 7 per 

 cent potash. At the end of the third year the orchards had so 

 far responded that they gave a good crop and since that time 

 fertilizer experiments have been carried on in various portions 

 of the orchards, as follows : 



The use of highly nitrogenous fertilizers has been advocated 

 as a means of forcing trees into bearing and in some parts of 

 the State has been tried with results that seemed to be gratify- 

 ing. This method was first suggested by Doctor Fisher of Mas- 

 sachusetts and was tried by the Station several years ago in 

 cooperative work with Mr. Pope in his orchard at Manchester 

 without very decisive results. At Highmoor Farm a row of 32 

 Baldwin trees was divided into three sections. The trees were 

 treated alike so far as the application of standard fertilizer was 

 concerned, but 10 of the trees at each end of the row received 

 in addition nitrate of soda at the rate of ioo pounds per acre. 

 Also the Baldwin orchard was divided into two parts so that 

 part of it received the usual treatment and in addition received 

 100 pounds of nitrate of soda per acre per year. 



Exact records of yields and measurements of growth have 

 been taken since the experiment was begun. No differences that 

 could be attributed to the additional nitrogen in the fertilizer 

 have been noticed. It may be that when at the end of a period 

 of years the data are carefully analyzed, results may be found 

 that are not noticeable from general observations. The experi- 

 ment will be continued in 1916. 



