48 STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



loses a chance tu apply any kind of manures, natural or arti- 

 ficial, which he believes good. Such applications, with average 

 treatment as regards soil and water use, have proven a good 

 investment. If there is a criticism due here, it is that excessive 

 use of nitrogen may have caused rather more than the usual 

 scab among the trees. 



Another experience, valuable as illustrating the effect of the 

 best treatment upon a comparatively young Navel orchard 

 that had suft'ered from the March frost, is that of A. P. Johnson. 

 In spite of the fact that a large proportion of the bearing wood 

 had been removed, a heavy application of fertilizer, properly 

 applied, brought not only a very profitable crop the foUo^v- 

 ing winter, but, with a later generous application, a crop the 

 present season, which, for uniform excellence, it is hard to 

 excel. Mr. Johnson's old seedlings, upon which he has put, 

 perhaps, seventy-five cents' worth of fertilizer to the tree, appear 

 to have twenty to twenty-five boxes of fruit each at the present 

 time. 



But the transforming effect of heavy fertilizing is more 

 conclusively shown in the old Kearn place, which, starved and 

 neglected in past years, had a crop last season not worth the 

 cost of picking, while to-day, as the result of exj^ending ninety 

 cents to the tree for fertilizer last year, there is a transforma- 

 tion in appearance and a crop which will give a handsome 

 dividend. I mention this not as directly bearing upon the 

 main topic we are discussing, but as showing the eflect of 

 generous expenditures in restoring the health of an orange 

 grove. The cure for tree weakness and nonproduction is simply 

 proper tree food in ample cjuantity, timely irrigation, and deep 

 <and thorough cultivation. 



