254 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 4 
worked over eight or 10 times per season to keep tlie 
dust mulch in right condition, and seeded later on 
with various crops for cover and humus. This is un¬ 
doubtedly more expensive than the mulch system, 
and it must be admitted that with this almost con¬ 
tinuous cultivation the land has been very materially 
Impoverished. The reverse is the case with the mulch 
system. I repeat that it is not a difficult matter to 
grow an orchard up to the age of 15 years by cultiva¬ 
tion. From now on it seems to me that the advocates 
of cultivation have never duly considered it. The 
crops grow weaker and weaker, until in the end one 
is sure to find that he cannot grow anything at all in 
his orchard, as the constant cultivation has burnt up 
all the vegetable fiber. At this age this hand-to- 
mouth system is about played out for best results; 
something else must be done. If I owned an orchard 
in this condition (which 1 never shali unless I buy it), 
and if I thought the orchard would justify the ex¬ 
pense I would fertilize thoroughly with manure and 
wood ashes broadcast over the entire surface, and 
mulch well out to drip of the branches, and as soon 
as possible try to get something to grow on the sur¬ 
face, not mulched, even if it be Sweet clover and Or¬ 
chard grass. Keep all stock out of the orchard, mow 
once or twice a year as may require, and let every¬ 
thing lie on the ground. It makes humus, conserves 
moisture and keeps the ground cooler and from wash¬ 
ing away. I would never cultivate the orchard again. 
I am reminded here of one of the eminent fruit grow¬ 
ers of the East who told a few weeks ago in Thk 11. 
N.-Y. how to renovate the old orchards of Pennsyl¬ 
vania; plow the ground four to five inches deep, and 
have a man follow the plow with an ax and cut the 
broken roots off as smooth as he could; then harrow 
and cultivate. This seems to me a very strange sys¬ 
tem to assist nature in building up from an emaciated 
condition; to cut the roots and millions of fibers which 
are the feeders that furnish the sap or life blood to 
the trees. Some reminiscences come up of my pioneer 
days, when I was obliged to plow among the stumps 
before the roots were decayed with an ox team. We 
had an ax fastened with a bit of leather on the plow 
beam to cut the roots when stuck with one against 
the coulter of the plow. Carrying an ax in this way 
would save time for those that plow their old or¬ 
chards as advised. In those early days this pait of 
the country was full of malaria and we suffered much 
from ague and chills. W^hen a doctor was called, no 
matter much what was the trouble, the first thing 
was to roll up your sleeves and take a pint or more 
of blood from you! 1 have the scars on both arms 
of the spring lance. I am glad that this barbarous 
system has long since ceased. Will not this same 
doctrine apply to our orchards? I believe it will most 
assuredly. s'- i’- vi='«i<)N. 
Delaware, 0,_ 
CULTIVATION OF TREES NECESSARY. 
The writer wishes he was able to show clearly and 
plainly the absolute necessity of doing this important 
work at the right time, and at all times in the best 
manner. Thorough tillage of the soil is bound to 
bring good results, and on this requisite depends the 
life and welfare of the trees. Clean and thorough cul¬ 
tivation means that the grower must keep his ground 
free of weeds at all times. It means more than this— 
that he must destroy the weeds before he sees them. 
If he does this he will always, during the growing sea¬ 
son, have the ground loose and in perfect order for 
the welfare of his trees. The plow, cultivator and 
harrow are to be used, and when to use them must 
be determined by the orchardist. Keep your ground 
loose and free from weeds and you will be sure to give 
the proper cultivation. The entire ground in a young 
orchard should be kept plowed for the first five years. 
The grower can, of course, crop the ground between 
the rows with strawberries, or with low-growing vege¬ 
tables like potatoes, beans and their kindred. These 
are most suitable crops for the situation, but if de¬ 
sired the ground can be cropped with corn, wheat, rye 
and oats; but no matter what the crop may be don’t 
plant within five feet of the trees. Where trees ai e 
planted in sod ground, on the lawn or in other places, 
the soil should be kept tilled about them three to four 
feet in diameter. It is a comparatively small and in¬ 
expensive job to cultivate fruit trees, provided the 
work is done in a timely season. Don’t let tufts of 
grass grow around the trunks of the trees. We have 
proved conclusively and to our entire satisfaction 
after many years of experiments that (excepting the 
peach tree) constant and persistent cultivation from 
year to year is detrimental to the welfare of all fruit 
trees. With this uninterrupted and continued tillage 
it is difficult to keep the trees under proper control; 
we are sure to stimulate them beyond their natural 
growth. Where we have such an overabundance of 
wood growth the formation and development of the 
fruit buds is correspondingly retarded. Where there 
is such a superfluity of wood growth it must be re¬ 
moved each year by severe and necessarily injurious 
pruning, and this together with the bad results of 
over-feeding will in a few years exhaust the vitality 
of the trees. After your orchard has been tilled for 
five years it should be seeded down to grass for three 
or four years, then cultivated again as in the begin¬ 
ning. An alternating system of cultivation and no 
cultivation judiciously prosecuted, will, we believe, 
prolong the life of the trees, and one year with an¬ 
other give the most permanent and profitable re.sults. 
Orange Co., N. Y. t. j. DWYnn. 
BRIEF TALKS ABOUT FERTILIZERS. 
Manure and Buckwheat Hulls. 
I have been drawing manure for crops and fruit trec.s. 
but it is hard to secure what I need. I can get some 
clear and fine horse manure free from straw. I can al.=o 
.secure well-rotted buckwheat hulls. Do you consider 
them valuable as fertilizer? Would they be worth as 
much per load as stable manure? Would you think it 
advi.sable to mix this fine manure with hen manure and 
fertilizer to be used for crops for hill and drill? 
Middletown, N. Y. e. j. s. 
By the chemist’s analysis such hulls ought to be 
worth about 20 per cent less than the manure, but we 
would rather have one ton of the fine manure than two 
tons of the hulls. They will answer well for mulch¬ 
ing or for plowing under with fertilizers. We would 
not mix the hen manure with the other, but would 
either mix it with chemicals, as we have often de¬ 
scribed, or use it alone on such crops as cabbage, to¬ 
matoes, lettuce or onions. Any crop that makes most 
of its growth (if)ove ground will be most hel|)ed by the 
hen manure. 
Nitrate of Soda Not Needed. 
1 .sec you recommend nitrate of soda as a fertilizer, and 
ill formulas to furnish nitrogen. 1 have tried nitrate of 
soda several times witli acid phosphate and with goo<l 
wood ashes; also alone, but as yet can see no good from 
it wliatever. My soil is sandy loam, clay loam and black 
soil. I used it on early garden truck. The only com¬ 
mercial fertilizer I received the benefit from was a plain 
superphosphate made from rock costing about $13 per ton. 
Some say it was the sulphuric acid the rock was treated 
with that did the good, by unlocking and making avail¬ 
able the plant food that was already in the soil. 
Fort Wayne, Ind. a. s. k. 
Did you use stable manure with the nitrate? When 
nitrate of soda used alone fails to show itself in a 
crop you may safely conclude that the soil does not 
need nitrogen. The nitrate makes itself evident in a 
dark green color and quick, rank growth, especially 
w'ith such crops as cabbage, lettuce or tomatoes. Many 
soils are reported from the West on which a plain 
superphosphate alone gives excellent results. We 
must understand that a “superphosphate” is the phos¬ 
phate rock ground fine and “cut” or mixed with sul¬ 
phuric acid. This acid makes the phosphoric acid in 
the rock soluble in water. Soils which respond to the 
acid rock are those rich in humus or vegetable matter. 
On a sandy soil or one not full of humus the con¬ 
tinued use of the superphosphate would prove injuri¬ 
ous. Crops which grow well on these rich soils are 
living upon the fertility stored up through many years 
by the former crops which provided the humus. It is 
true that the superphosphate sets this plant food free, 
and it will continue to do so as long as there is plenty 
of it stored away. The time will surely come when 
this superphosphate alone will not produce good crops. 
It is not the sulphuric acid which sets free the plant 
food. There is seldom enough sulphuric acid present 
to act on the soil since the manufacturers use only 
enough to “cut” the rock. The benefit comes from 
supplying phosphoric acid as plant food. Ihis ele¬ 
ment is most likely to be lacking in such soils. This 
phosphoric acid also stimulates the work of the little 
bacteria which work over the humus and put it into 
available forms. The superphosphate also contains 
sulphate of lime or plaster. This makes a chemical 
change in the soil and sets free a quantity of potash. 
These things explain why on some heavy soils super¬ 
phosphates alone will produce good crops of clover, 
and this, with the farm manure, will keep the farm in 
good heart. 
Grape Pomace as a Fertilizer. 
Can you tell me the fertilizing value of pomace from 
grapes? It consists of .seeds and skins which have stood 
in the must and fermented before pressing, and is then 
dumped outdoors. I.s it worth drawing two miles? 
Would it have acid enough to need neutralizing with lime? 
Portland. N. Y. J- o- c. 
I. have recently purchased a vineyard of Concord vines 
con.sisting of 23 acres. It is situated in the center of the 
Chautauqua grape belt, near the shore of Bake Erie, on 
a clay loam soil. It has been an excellent bearing vine¬ 
yard, having borne to my knowledge 80 tons of grapes 
in a single season when the vines were not all matured. 
Dike nearly all the other vineyards in this belt, the 
former owners have taken away the crop, and put noth¬ 
ing back to replace the elements which have been taken 
from the soil to produce it. I,ast season it did as well 
as the average vineyard, producing about a. half of a 
crop (40 tons). I am of the opinion that this amount 
will be all it ever will produce again in one. season until 
something has been done to build up the soil. I am 
also Inclined to think it will he only a matter of a few 
years before it would run out entirely, as well as other 
vineyards if the same system of starvation is pursued. 
I commenced some time last Summer to manufacture a 
fertilizer, and have resolved to make every possible en¬ 
deavor to bring this vineyard back to its normal fruit¬ 
bearing condition and shall make an attempt even to 
surpass that. I would like to ask would the following 
compost be desirable for building up the fertility of my 
vineyard, and approximately what per cent of the three 
elements docs it contain: .'>0 large wagon loads of well- 
rotted grape pomace. 2.') loads of horse manure, 25 ioads 
of cow manure? This compost has been w'ell mixed up 
together and also has had the advantage of having 13 
good energetic pigs running over it all Winter, who have 
kept it pretty (horonghly mixed by keeping up a dili¬ 
gent hunt for the seeds contained in the pomace. Would 
it be better to apply this mixture broadcast or have it 
thrown around the vine? Would four shovels full to the 
vine be enough? What chemical ingredient ought 1 to 
u.se in connection with it, and how much to the acre? 
Westfield. N. Y. J- a. d. 
'fhe following figures show the average composition 
of the .substances named: 
I’ounds In One Ton. 
Niiro- Phos. Pot- 
gen. acid. ash. 
Grajie pomace . 15 5 16 
Horse manure . 10 5 13 
Cow manure . 8 7 10 
A fair sample of your mixture ought to show 13 
pounds of nitrogen, 5% of phosphoric acid and nearly 
14 pounds of potash to the ton. This is a little bettor 
than average horse manure, though the seeds of 
grapes decay slowly. For a single year or perhaps 
two this compost ought to give good results on a 
vineyard that is badly run down. We would not use 
it longer, foi it contains too much nitrogen in propor¬ 
tion to the potash and phosphoric acid, and will make 
too much growth of wood, encourage rot and prevent 
early and even ripening. The special fertilizer mix¬ 
tures which have given best results on grapes contain 
about three times as much phosphoric acid and five 
times as much potash as of nitrogen. You might use 
the compost this year alone, but we would prefer to 
use with it a mixture of 400 parts acid phosphate to 
100 sulphate of potash—say 300 pounds per acre. 
Where this grape pomace is used alone it would prob¬ 
ably make the soil too acid, and to overcome this 
lime at the rate of at least 20 bushels per acre should 
be used. 
Burning Clay to Make Fertilizer. 
We are just beginning to come to the point where we 
have to study the subject of fertilizers, and your timely 
talks on this subject are just what we need. I have 
been experimenting in making a fertilizer from which I 
have had good results, and which I purpose to use largely 
this season. It is not original. I saw an account of it 
in an agricultural paper over 28 years ago. and its sim¬ 
pleness and cheapness and, as I believed at the time, 
and now I know, it is of inestimable value to everyone 
who tills the soil. Especially is this the case to the man 
whose pocketbook will not admit of buying high-priced 
commercial fertilizers. Take any old litter, leaves of 
trees, old straw, small brush, trimmings from raspberry 
and blackberry bushes, in fact, anything that will burn, 
but that is not so large that it will make charcoal, even 
very small limbs, say not over one-half inch in diameter. 
Pile them up in a good-sized conical heap, then cover all 
over with a good clay loamy soil or a heavy clay soil, if 
you have it; cover to the depth of four to five inches. After 
all is well covered and firmed down with the back of 
shovel, open out four places at opposite sides of 
pile about 12 inches in diameter, and start a fire in them. 
To give the fire a draft open a small hole near the top 
of the pile directly over the fire hole. As soon as fire.s 
are well started, which will usually be in a short time, 
owing something to the nature of material, close up all 
holes nearly tight, leaving only just sufficient opening 
so the fire can burn very slowly. A good-sized pile 
should be from eight to 12 days before all is consumed. 
When this is accomplished mix the whole heap, ilm 
covering of earth and the a.shes, in the bed all thor¬ 
oughly together and you have at a trifling cost a large 
amount of excellent fertilizer. The principle is that 
the combustion of this material taking place slowly 
underneath its covering of absorbent earth all the ele¬ 
ments of nitrogen, ammonia and phosphoric acid have 
been retained, absorbed in this earth covering, and I 
presume a fair amount of potash is retained in the 
