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FERTILIZERS FOR THE GARDEN. 



the tree in a condition where all ' rapid and vigorous 

 growth ' — a growth always most liable to disease, and 

 especially to the blight — should be guarded against, and 

 a iimdcralc groioth of well-formed, short-jointed wood 

 secured. It is because of the luxuriant growth of the 

 pear on the rich soils of the west, that the blight is ten 

 times more frequent and destructive there than in 

 eastern gardens. " 



Here we have the opinions of two of the most dis- 

 tinguished pomologists of the age. Mr. Barry was, in 

 our judgment, unquestionably right in endeavoring to 

 secure an early, rapid, vigorous growth before mid- 

 summer. Mr. Downing was right when he said " <' 

 laic gro'oth is frequently caught immature at the ap- 

 proach of winter, and suffers thereby, either in frost- 

 blight or in some other way." 



The remarkable thing about it is that Mr. Barry, 

 nearly 30 years before the discovery of the "nitrate 

 fungus " should have come to precisely the same con- 

 clusion, in regard to the desirability of vigorous early, 

 growth, as those of us have reached who have studied 

 the question in the light of the recent facts. 



When Mr. Barry wrote it was not an easy matter to 

 manure the land so as to produce the desired early 

 vigorous growth without running considerable danger of 

 forcing a late succulent growth of wood and buds that 

 would not mature in time to stand our severe winters. 

 The best he could do was to carefully pile manure and 

 let it slowly ferment for months till more or less of the 

 organic nitrogen and ammonia were converted into 

 nitrates, and avoid the risk of their leaching away by 

 covering the piles with soil or sods. 



We now know how to produce a rapid, vigorous, 

 healthy growth in the spring, such as Mr. Barry desired, 

 without the excessive growth in the fall deprecated by 

 Mr. Downing. This is done by the direct application 

 of nitrates early in the spring. 



In his recent work on Nitrogenous Manures, Prof. 

 Paul Wagner, director of the experim.ent station, 

 Darmstadt, mentions a fact of great value in this con- 

 nection. He says; "In my experiments a rape plant, 

 freely manured with nitrate of soda, took up so much 

 nitrogen that in its young state it contained no less than 

 6 per cent, of that element. Some weeks later the size 

 of the plant was doubled, and the amount of the nitro- 

 gen in it was only 3 per cent., and still a few weeks 

 later it was quadrupled in size and the quantity of ni- 

 trogen in it had sunk to per cent." "It is wrong," 

 he continues, "to suppose that nitrate of soda acts on 

 the plants while it is in tlu' soil ; the nitrate is very soon 

 no longer in the soil but/// the plant, and in this position 

 it produces a striking increase in the size of the plant. 

 As the plant-substance increases, the percentage of ni- 

 trogen contained in it diminishes continuously until it 

 has reached the minimum, and then the action of the 

 nitrogen, and with it the increase of produce, ceases." 



This is an important fact. Plants get their carbon 

 {sugar, gum, starch, woody fibre, etc.) from the car- 

 bonic acid of the atmosphere, but the nitrogen and the 

 ash ingredients come from the soil. Not less than four- 



fifths of the dry substance of plants comes from the at- 

 mosphere. When Mr. Barry tried to get a rapid, vigor- 

 ous growth of pear leaves early in the season, in order 

 to ward off an attack of leaf-blight, his real object 

 was to get the leaves full of sap, and a sap overcharged 

 with nitrates, phosphoric acid, potash, etc., so that they 

 could take carbonic acid rapidly from the atmosphere 

 and make a vigorous, healthy growth. 



It is the cliloropliyl or the dark green coloring matter 

 of the- leaves, under the action of the sun, that enables 

 them to get the carbonic acid from the atmosphere. In 

 this country, as a rule, we have plenty of sun, but, es- 

 pecially early in the spring, our plants are deficient in 

 chlorophyl. And this lack of chlorophyl is owing to a 

 lack of nitrates. These are well known facts. 



As we have before said, Mr. Barry must have found 

 it difficult, if not impossible, to get a sufficient quantity 

 of nitrates early in the spring without furnishing more 

 manure than the trees required the latter part of sum- 

 mer or early autumn, when nitrification of organic matter 

 in the soil, under the action of heat and moisture, often 

 proceeds with great rapidity. But by the use of chemi- 

 cal fertilizers containing nitrates we can now obtain a 

 rapid growth in the spring without producing a too 

 luxuriant growth in the fall 



It remains to be proved that the rapid vigorous 

 growth before midsummer has a tendency to resist the 

 attacks of blight, yellows and other diseases. Some of 

 our authorities say it will not do so. But so far as we 

 have seen they have made no satisfactory experiments 

 on this point. Our own practical trials (not experi- 

 ments) with nitrate of soda and other fertilizers seem to 

 indicate that a rapid, vigorous growth of trees often en- 

 ables them to resist fungus diseases. But there are ex- 

 ceptions. Last year the leaves on our apple trees, after 

 the severe frost in June, were seriously attacked by 

 fungus and rose bugs, and several acres of currant 

 bushes, those which had had a dressing of nitrate and 

 those which had not, were all attacked with leaf blight, 

 and our peach trees, with and without nitrate, were all 

 destitute of fruit. In previous years nitrate of soda 

 had proved wonderfully efficacious in increasing the 

 healthy growth of leaves on peaches, apples and cur- 

 rants, as well as the size, quality and quantity of the 

 fruit. And even last year it had a decided effect on 

 raspberries, strawberries and other plants that escap'ed 

 the frost. On the whole, therefore, theory and prac- 

 tice alike warrant us in hoping that a rapid, healthy, 

 vigorous growth early in the season will enable our 

 plants, at least to a considerable extent, to ward off fun- 

 gus diseases as well as attacks of insects. And this can 

 be best obtained by the liberal use, in conjunction with 

 phosphoric acid and potash, of fertilizers furnishing 

 nitrates. The fact is, that more attention has been paid 

 to the introduction of improved varieties of fruits, flow- 

 ers and vegetables than to the science of feeding them. 

 The pomologists and gardeners have got ahead of the 

 chemists and fertilizer manufacturers. With plants as 

 with animals, good feeding must go hand in hand with 

 good breeding. Joseph Harris, 



