FRUIT AND ORNAMENTAL NURSERY STOCK 



Proper cultivation in a Peach orchard. Up, down and across, stirs the soil on all sides of the tree. 



FERTILIZING 



No two pieces of land are alike in fertilizer re- 

 quirements. Make your soil fine and loose before 

 you plant, and you will not need to apply so much 

 fertilizer, if you need any at all. Grind it up with 

 disc or cutaway, spring-tooth and spike harrows, 

 after a thorough plowing, till it is hke corn and oats 

 chop. Don't be afraid to go 8 or 10 inches deep, 

 even in an orchard. 



The plant-food elements that need to be appHed, 

 to a greater or less extent, are nitrogen, potash and 

 phosphorus. Nitrogen usually is considered to be 

 the growing food. It is suppHed to the soil best and 

 cheapest by means of leguminous crops, such as 

 the clovers and peas. It can also be supplied by 

 dried blood, barnyard manure, nitrate of soda and 

 other forms. Potash is considered the food that is 

 needed to ripen and color fruit. Phosphorus helps 

 to harden the wood, make it strong to carry fruit, 

 healthy and able to withstand winters. 



Study fertilizers before you apply them. If you 

 can mix them in the right proportions and thor- 

 oughly, buy the most concentrated forms of potash, 

 nitrogen and phosphorus. Always figure how many 

 pounds of the actual foods should be appUed to the 

 acre or tree, and then get this actual food the cheap- 

 est and easiest way you can. You should get prices 

 and freight rates on all kinds of fertilizer from 

 several different firms, and then get the real analysis 

 figures as a basis for buying and applying what you 

 need. 



Stable (horse) manure always is good on apples, 

 unless the trees are making too much growth and 

 are threatened with fire-blight. Get the commercial 

 fertihzer on the ground evenly. For trees, apply it 

 over a space at least twice as wide as the branches 

 cover. Heavy land that contains much organic 

 (vegetable) matter usually needs lime. Lime is of 

 great benefit to trees if not used to excess. 



SPRAYING 



If you want salable fruit and healthy trees you've 

 got to spray every year. If you are not going to 

 spray the trees it would be best not to plant an 

 orchard. San Jose scale on peach and apple, codHn- 

 moth on apple, curcuUo and brown-rot on peach, 

 are all controlled surely by proper spraying. 



Get the catalogues of spraying machinery. They 

 contain mines of information. Write the United 

 States Department of Agriculture and your own 

 state agricultural or horticultural department. Get 

 all the bulletins and other pubHcations on the subject. 



See that all details of spraying are carefully looked 

 after. Examine the trees closely and often, and 

 learn to identify the enemies. If you don't know 

 them, send samples of the infected twigs, leaves or 



fruit to the Department of Agriculture, Washington, 

 D. C., for identification. The experiment stations 

 also will tell you what the trouble is. When you 

 spray, remember that successful control of the 

 enemies depends on doing the work at the right 

 time, on applying the right mixture, at the right 

 strength, and putting it on in the right way. You've 

 got to spray thoroughly — coat the bark and twigs 

 and leaves aU over the trees. Be particular to 

 cover the twig-ends and the buds and the fruit- 

 spurs. Drive the spray down and up and crossways, 

 into the cups of the blossoms and into the crevices 

 of bark and forks. For the spraying just after the 

 blossom petals fall, use a nozzle that gives a coarse, 

 driving spray. For all other sprayings, use a nozzle 



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