September, 1913. 



TKIO CARDEN AND 1<MELD. 



led 



plantation. I*oisonfd wheat would, 

 after all, l»e quite a.s elTectivc, 

 though less ^ntnu.sing pi rhaps ; a 

 poisonctl sparrow has no use for 

 coitrical sqifeals. 



♦ 



Manuri ag Fruit Trees. 



According to experiments ear- 

 ned out by the Corndll Eixpcri- 

 uient Station in America, a/ crop 

 amounting to 1 25 bushels of 'ap- 

 ples removes in the fruit and leaves 

 'line on the average of "To years, 



r, lbs. • Tot ash, 15^ 11)3. Phos- 

 phoric acid, and 66'\|t1)s. Nitrogen 

 per acre per annum. It is shown 

 b\- comparison that apples re- 

 move three times as much potash, 

 twice as miich nitrogen, and half 

 as much again of phosphoric acid 

 as is removed in an average crop 

 of wheat -vielding 15 bushels of 

 grain to the acre. It will thus be 

 seen that the apple crop is a very 

 exhausting one, which removes 

 large amounts of plant food from 

 the soil, and these must somehow 

 or other be replaced if the orchard 

 is to continue productive and pro- 

 fitable. 



The fertilisers employed by the 

 apple grower are various kinds of 

 bone dust and other organic man- 

 ures. How much potash, phos- 

 phoric acid and nitrogen do man- 



ures of this class contain ? It is 

 now almost jiopular knowledge 

 that bone dust contains onlv a 

 veiv small percent.ige df nitrogen 

 and a .somewhat higher am'ount of 

 ])hosphoric acid, to i);irticularise, 

 about 3 per cent, nitrogen and 

 about 22 per cent, of phosphoric 

 acid. A man therefore who applies 

 6 cwts. bone dust per acre gives 

 alwut 20 lbs. of nitrogen an;d 1.1,5 

 lbs. of phosjihoric acid. This, it 

 will be noticed, sujjplies the last 

 mentioned ingredient, and actually 

 returns no pota.sh whatever, the 

 ingredient which is removed in 

 larpe.st cjuantitv. This is obvi- 

 ouslv not rational manuriTig. All 

 three ingred.ients are essential, and 

 all three iierform important func- 

 tions in the plant. The nitrogen 

 is of special importance for the 

 jiroduction of healthy foliage. 

 Phosphoric acid, among oth^r 

 things, is of importance in the 

 setting and ripening of the fruit, 

 while potash is essential to ' the 

 production of healthy active foli- 

 age, and exerts paramount influ- 

 ence on all that speaks for qualitv 

 in the produce, size, colour, fla- 

 vour and aroma. 



How, then,,mav we best supply 

 these ingredients ? 



Pirstly, in regard to the nitro- 

 gen, which is by far the most 

 costly; there can be no doubt that 

 the method of green manuring is 



the most economical and satis- 

 factory. All the most successful 

 fruit-growers a/e now adopting the 

 practice of sowing in their orchards 

 some leguminous plant — grcv peas 

 and tares are speciallv suitable — 

 and ploughing it under for green 

 manure. P.\- this mvans .not only 

 is the expensive nitro-ijen olrtained 

 at a minimum cost, but the supply 

 of humus in the .soil is maintained, 

 and this is of the very first im- 

 portance for the conservation of 

 moisture in the soil and the pre- 

 servation of a proper degree of 

 porosity. The writer has frequent- 

 ly heard growers and experts as- 

 sert that thev had obtained better 

 results from green manure than 

 from bones, etc., and that this 

 should be so is easilv understood, 

 but in order to obtain the very 

 best results froin green manure it 

 is necessarv to manure the green 

 manure i)lant. The plants grown 

 for green manure are, or ought to 

 be, legumes, i.e., plants of the 

 bean and pea family, whuch, by 

 the help of the bacteria in their 

 root nodules, are able to derive 

 the nitrogen they require from the 

 free nitro t^en of the atmosphere. 

 But the^■ are, like all other plants, 

 dependent ripon the soil for the 

 potash and phosphoric acid, which 

 are to them no less essential than 

 to all other plants. This is a point 

 too often lost sight of, and it ist a 

 fact no grower should forget, that 

 if the soil l>e deficient in either pot- 

 ash or phosphoric acid, a full 

 crop .of the green manure plant 

 cannot be grown. 



— Experiments. — 



An experiment some years ago 

 showed this, and the greatly in- 

 creased growth on the plot man- 

 ured with muriate of potash and 

 superphosphate is the more aston- 

 ishing when it is remembered that 

 the rainfall throughout the period 

 of growth was small. 



In this instance the crop grown 

 was cow-peas, but perhaps the 

 most generally usef|ul plants are 

 grey peas (sown mixed with oats 

 for preference) and tares. These 

 have the advantage that thev are 

 hard\- enough to be sown in early 

 autumn, they attain a good 

 autumn and "winter growth, and 

 can be ploughed in in spring,. thus 

 leaving the land clear during the 

 dry summer months, and so con- 

 serving every available drop of 

 moisture for the benefit of the 

 fruit trees. 



Of course, when a green manure 

 crop is manured and grown in the 

 manner above suggested, there is 



(Continued, on page 164). 



FRUIT TREES. 



By far the Largest Stock in Australia. 

 200 Acpes—Clean, Healthy, Well-Grown, and Free from Insect Pests. 



Inspection Invited. 



CATALOGUES FREE BY POST. 



C. A. NOBELIUS, 



Oembrook: [Nurseries, 



Emerald (Vic), Australia 



