RATIONAL FRUIT CULTURE. 53 



MANURING POINTS IN BRIEF. 



The question of manuring 'may be simmied up as 

 follows: — 



If the trees are making satisfactory growth they do not 

 require more food than they can get in the ground. But 

 when the growth begins to show signs of weakening they may 

 be dressed in autumn or winter with not more than twenty- 

 five loads of stable manure per acre, supplemented by four 

 hundredweight of kainit (or one hundredweight of sulphate 

 of potash) and six hundredweight of basic slag (or four hun- 

 dredweight of superphosphate) , followed in spring, after the 

 ftuit is set, by two hundredweight of nitrate of soda (or one 

 hundredweight of sulphate of ammonia). When no stable 

 manure is used, the quantities of the artificials may be doubled. 

 If the land is heavy, and believed to contain enough organic 

 food material, but not in a soluble form, and especially if it 

 is inclined to be sour, a dressing of lime may be substituted 

 for the others suggested. 



A soluble fertiliser, preferably in liquid form, applied in 

 early summer to trees bearing heavy crops, will assist them 

 to swell their fruit and to make the necessary growth. 



Nitrogenous maniu-es, if not others, should be strewn on 

 the surface, and not dug in — only hoed in lightly. 

 As soon as they dissolve they begin to sink, and 

 though the sinkage is, of course, very slow, they will 

 eventually drain down into the lower strata, unless they are 

 captured on the way. The higher they are placed in the 

 ground at first, therefore, the longer the time the roots have 

 to make use of them, and the less waste there is likely to be. 



