6i 



Plot 2, receiving nitrogen and phosphate only, at the present 

 time shows a better gain than number 6, which receives potash in 

 addition. This is directly connected with the almost complete crop- 

 failure that occurred on the latter plot this past season, and it is 

 also doubtless partly attributable again to natural fluctuations in 

 yield. It shows, however, that no additional potash is needed in this 

 orchard, so far as yields are concerned. 



Phosphates are next in importance to nitrogen here, as indi- 

 cated by the 42-bushel average deficit that occurs in plot 3 as com- 

 pared with number 6, when phosphorus is omitted in the former, 

 and also by the high yields on number 2. Manure, as a result of the 

 extra large crop of 1912, when most of the other plots were having 

 an off-season, is now in the lead in this experiment, with the tre- 

 mendous average yield of 637 bushels per acre annually for the past 

 four years. This gives an annual gain over the check of 463 bushels 

 per acre, which is a very satisfactory exchange for 13 tons of 

 manure. This benefit from manure is doubtless largely due to its 

 nitrogen content, the proof of which becomes more evident later. 



Time Required for Results to Appear. — It is a common im- 

 pression that long times are required to determine the value and 

 kind of fertilizer needed for an orchard. It will be noted here 

 and in the following experiment, however, that both these facts were 

 thoroughly evident in the season immediately following the one in 

 which the fertilizers were first applied. In other words, both the 

 value of fertilization and the kind of fertilizer needed were clearly 

 evident in these two cases within a single year after the first appli- 

 cation, and the conclusions formulated then have not been materially 

 changed by the results of the 4 to 5 additional years that we now 

 have. In most other cases, also, where these facts did not appear 

 in the first two or three seasons of bearing they have not appeared 

 in the five or six years now available. This is of special importance 

 in connection with the local tests recommended later, though in 

 them we advise at least 3 years of trial, for the sake of a wider 

 margin of safety and greater stability in the resulting conclusions. 



Results from the Brov/n Orchard. 



This experiment is located in Bedford County on DeKalb 

 stony loam, — a residual, foot-hill soil, chiefly of sandstone origin, 

 which is commonly used for orchard purposes. The trees in this 

 case are York Imperial, now 24 years old. It involves the same 

 treatments as those in the Johnston orchard and four others be- 

 sides, — those in plots 6, 9, 11, and 12. It also was started a year 

 earlier, in 1907, and the results of that season are excluded in the 

 present table for reasons stated above. The results for the past five 

 operative years are given in Table III. 



