TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 229 



maximum demand can not be assured without advertising, and to 

 advertise properly you must have organization. 



On motion, duly seconded, a vote of thanks was tendered to Mr. 

 Barnhill. 



HOW CAN WE PRESERVE THE FERTILITY OF OUR ORCHARDS? 



By a. D. bishop, of Orange. 



This question is becoming one of vital importance, not only as to 

 how it can be done, but also as to how it can be accomplished at a 

 minimum cost or at such a figure as the income from the orchard would 

 make it possible for us to expend for that purpose. 



The fruit-consuming power of the people of the country is almost 

 beyond comprehension and is not fully realized by any of us; but it is 

 not the millionaires who consume our products, it is the wage-earners, 

 the people who are in moderate circumstances. If we find a market 

 for the enormous products of the immediate future they must be sold 

 at a price that will put them within reach of all; but if this is done 

 there will be very little left for the producer, after having paid the 

 present extravagant fixed charges taxed by transportation company, box 

 agency, packer, and selling agent. There is scarcely a product of the 

 earth of whatever class that is not held up by some combination exact- 

 ing a tribute out of all proportion to the service rendered, for we are 

 all aware of the enormous increase in the cost between the producer 

 and the consumer. 



The condition confronting us, then, is the production of our fruits 

 with the least possible cost consistent with good business, and as one of 

 the most essential elements of their production is fertilization, it must be 

 done Avith the least possible cost consistent with the best results, and 

 this can not be accomplished by the use of commercial fertilizers alone. 

 We must, if possible, keep the soils of our orchards up to the standard 

 of fertility of virgin soils, and this can best be done by following the 

 examples set forth in the economics of nature. Science tells us that 

 there are three principal elements necessary for plant growth and 

 which are most likely to be exhausted: potash, nitrogen, and phosphoric 

 acid. To these I will add a fourth, humus, in the absence of which the 

 others will be only slightly available, and plant growth very meager. 

 Chemical analysis has shown that in an average crop of most of our fruit 

 products we take from the soil from forty to eighty pounds of potash 

 per acre, from ten to twenty pounds of phosphoric acid, and from 

 seventeen to seventy -five pounds of nitrogen; but it has not shown how 

 much the per cent of humus is reduced. Experience has shown that 

 clean cultivation in winter, with irrigation and constant summer culti- 



