March, 1006 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



The right way to manure trees. The feeding roots 

 are at some distance from the trunK 



than a few feet. Even though the crop 

 comes out of the winter as a mere mat over 

 the surface, it has served its purpose and 

 may be plowed under with profit. 



Green manuring is fundamental to the 

 most economical fertilizing of most orchards, 

 whether home or commercial. But not 

 every orchard would be benefited by green 

 manuring ; not every orchard that needs green 

 manuring should have it every year. The 

 guide in every case is the need of the soil as 

 expressed in the growth of the trees. 



BARNYARD MANURE IN THE ORCHARD 



The home orchardist may reduce his fer- 

 tilizer bill by a judicious use of animal 

 manures in addition to tillage and the use of 

 green manures. Farm manures are richer 

 in nitrogen than in the other essential plant 

 foods that may be needed — potash and 

 phosphoric acid. Usually nitrogen can be 

 supplied to fruit trees cheaper by excellent 

 tillage and by green manuring than by the 

 use of farm manures. I feel perfectly safe 

 in saying that, as a general rule, farm manures 

 can be used to much better advantage in 

 garden, field, and meadow than in the 

 orchard. This is because they tend to pro- 

 mote a very vigorous growth, which is usually 

 very desirable for vegetables, grains and 

 grasses, but generally very undesirable for 

 fruit trees. One frequently sees trees that 

 have become "intoxicated with nitrogen," 

 as I have heard it put. The owners, with 

 well meant zeal, have lavishly manured them 

 from year to year, thinking, no doubt, that 

 the more food the trees have, the more fruitful 

 they should be. But many of these petted 

 and overfed trees are ungrateful; they grow 

 a large crop of wood — not fruit. 



MANURING FRUIT TREES IN SOD 



Farm manures, then, should be used with 

 caution in the orchard, because they are 

 rich in nitrogen. Nitrogen is a plant stimu- 

 lant as well as a plant food. Only listless 

 trees, those that are making an unsatisfactory 

 growth, or young trees that need bracing up, 

 need a stimulant. Young trees, especially 

 if tilled, usually make enough growth without 



a nitrogen fertilizer. It is ths business of 

 young' trees to grow; they have nothing else 

 to absorb their energies. Hence it is well to 

 manure young trees sparingly, if at all. 

 When trees come into bearing, however, 

 their vitality is subjected to a severe drain, 

 and their growth checked. I have seen the 

 annual growth of an apple tree reduced from 

 twenty inches to six inches by one heavy 

 crop of fruit. In later years, as the strain 

 on the trees increases, they may show, by 

 feeble growth, that a nitrogen stimulant is 

 needed. Then is the opportunity to use farm 

 manure. 



Barnyard manure is commonly considered, 

 and rightly so, an excellent fertilizer for sod 

 orchards. Sod trees usually need just such 

 a bracer as the nitrogen in manure supplies, 

 and the soil also needs the humus of the 

 manure to partially offset the drying out 

 effect of the sod. But top dressing an orchard 

 with manure usually introduces weeds, and 

 it is a question if better results cannot be 

 secured and the weeds avoided by pasturing 

 with swine or sheep. The latter especially 



The wrong way to manure trees. This method of ap- 

 plication is a very common mistaKe among amateurs 



may be depended upon- to distribute their 

 droppings fairly uniformly, but particularly on 

 the knolls, and also to keep down both grass 

 and weeds. Pasturing the orchard was 

 discussed in The Garden Magazine for 

 July. Manuring alone usually works won- 

 ders in a sod orchard, especially if it has been 

 neglected ; but it is well to remember that the 

 trees need the mineral plant foods also, and 

 if the fruit is ill-colored and keeps poorly, 

 manuring may be supplemented to advantage 

 with bone, superphosphates, muriate of 

 potash or other mineral fertilizers. 



The best time to apply manures to fruit 

 trees, and the amount to use, depends upon 

 many things. The very best way, if it can 

 be made expedient, is to spread the manure 

 in the orchard as soon as it is made, both in 

 summer and in winter. On steep land 

 some of the virtue of manure spread in winter 

 will be washed away before spring, but 

 usually not nearly as much as would have 



been lost by ordinary methods of storing 

 manure. The amount that it is best to apply 

 depends upon the character of the soil, the 

 needs of the fruit, and many other factors; 

 from ten to twenty tons or two-horse loads 

 per acre would be considered a light dressing, 

 from twenty to thirty tons a heavy application. 

 commercial fertilizers in the orchard 



After the home resources in the enrichment 

 of the soil have been exhausted it is time to 

 turn to commercial fertilizers to supply de- 

 ficiencies. It is a very simple matter to spread 

 around the trees each year the contents of a 

 few fertilizer bags. This is much easier than 

 spreading several loads of manure or sowing 

 and plowing under a green manure crop. 

 It takes less time and less worry. Hence 

 many people who own a few fruit trees come 

 to rely upon commercial fertilizers alone, 

 neglecting the other sources of fertility that 

 have been mentioned. This is a great mis- 

 take. The home fruit grower should use 

 commercial fertilizers to supplement — not to 

 replace — tillage, green manures and barnyard 

 manures. Some fruit gardens, like some 

 farms, are fertilizer sick. They have been 

 dosed with large quantities of high-grade 

 fertilizers, but the humus content of the soil 

 has not been kept up. If fertilizers are used, 

 and usually they must be, let them be in 

 conjunction with manuring. 



The purchaser of commercial fertilizers is 

 in the way of many pitfalls, for some fer- 

 tilizers, like breakfast foods, are not as nour- 

 ishing as the advertisement suggests. Fur- 

 thermore, they are very frequently used with- 

 out definite knowledge of what the soil needs 

 or what they contain. 



FERTILIZER TESTS 



There is but one satisfactory way of finding 

 out the first query, that is by making a fer- 

 tilizer test upon the land. Sending a sample 

 of the soil to a chemist for analysis will not 

 answer it, although many people still appeal 

 to this convenient but unreliable guide. The 

 chemist can tell how much plant food the 

 soil contains, but he cannot tell how much of it 

 is in such shape that the trees can use it. 

 Only the trees can tell this. A fertilizer test 

 is not difficult to make, nor is it inexpedient 

 for the home fruit grower. 



Fertilizing by tilling the soil. Plowing and cultivat- 

 ing makes the plant food in the soil more available. 

 Good tillage will reduce the fertilizer bill 



