82 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



In fig. 5 is shown a tree which has received no dressing since it was 

 planted in 1894, and in fig. 6 one which has received artificial manure 

 in increasing amounts every year, till now the dressing is equivalent to 

 120 tons of dung to the acre. Yet the latter shows no superiority over 

 its unmanured neighbour. 



We cannot expect, of course, that apple trees will go on growing for an 

 indefinite period even in our soil, without exhausting the available food in 

 the ground. Still less do we conclude that manures will be as ineffectual 

 in all soils as they are in our own : but it is certain that the cost of 

 whatever manure has been given to our apple trees during the past ten or 



Fm. 6. 



eleven years has been money wasted, and I think we may take it as 

 equally certain that ours is not the one exceptional field in England 

 where such a result would be obtained. Indeed, our land is of no 

 exceptional fertility, and it consists of a soil which most growers would 

 consider would be much improved by a good dunging, and the effect of 

 dung on farm crops appears to be the same there as elsewhere. 



Contrasted with the absence of effect of manure on apple trees, we find 

 that in the case of gooseberries, currants and raspberries, manure, and 

 especially dung, is of such paramount importance that those plants which 

 have not been dunged have been practically exterminated. 



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