1915. 
TH EC RURAL NEW-VORKER 
3S5 
Planting Iron With Trees. 
I N regard to the use of iron scraps in 
planting fruit trees, I wish to say that 
we are aware the idea that this practice 
i.■ beneficial has been prevalent among 
many horticultural people for a good 
many years. Iron has been regarded as 
the cause of high color in fruit and flow¬ 
ers. So far as we have any reliable 
facts on this matter they are insufficient 
to justify this theory; nor has there been 
any satisfactory evidence presented in an 
experimental way to show that iron is 
beneficial in this regard. 
Iron is present in soils as hydroxide, 
oxide, hydrated oxides and sulphides. 
These compounds are red, yellow or 
brown and cause the main colors of soil. 
It is extremely rare that soil does not 
contain enough iron to supply plants in¬ 
definitely. Next to oxygen, iron is the 
most abundant essential element of plant 
food, constituting about -4!/> per cent, of 
the solid crust of the earth. It is known 
to be an essential element of living proto¬ 
plasm, and as a secondary function is 
known to be essential to the formation of 
chlorophyll, the green coloring matter 
of plants. It has been found that of 
soils derived from ten different geological 
formations the iron content in an acre 
G 2-3 inches contained the following 
amounts of iron:—minimum 59,400 
pounds, maximum 120.400 pounds, aver¬ 
age 84,800 pounds. These are enormous 
quantities, and practically inexhaustible, 
especially since we know that the amounts 
removed by plants are insignificant. Ir 
has been asserted that certain soils in 
Northern Michigan are so deficient' in 
iron that the plants grown in them do 
not furnish sufficient iron to the cattle 
nf the region to permit of full maturity, 
but the writer is unable to vouch for 
this statement. This matter might be 
summed up by a quotation from Hall of 
the Rothamsted Experiment Station, 
England, as given in his book on “Fertil¬ 
izers and Manures”: 
A very widespread opinion is specially 
current in horticultural literature, that 
high color in Fruit and flowers is to be 
associated with an abundance of iron 
compounds in the soil, and that in con¬ 
sequence sulphate of iron is valuable as 
an adjunct to manures. One argument 
advanced in favor of this opinion is the 
bright coloring of apples, roses, etc., 
grown on the red sandstones and loams 
of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, the 
red hue of which is admittedly due to 
oxides of iron. When the facts are more 
closely examined, they afford, however, 
little support to such a theory. In the 
first place, the plant requires very little 
iron indeed: as a rule, not more than one 
per cent, of the ash of a plant consists 
of oxide of iron, two per cent, might be 
taken as an outside limit, so that the 
amount of oxide of iron taken from the 
soil by a heavy crop of mangolds (the 
leaf of which is specially rich in iron) 
only amounts to 10 pounds per acre. 
Now it is very rare to meet with a soil 
that does not contain two per cent, (or 
20 tons per acre in the top nine inches) 
of oxide of iron soluble in hydrochloric 
acid, and of this a considerable propor¬ 
tion is soluble in the weakest acids and 
must be regarded as available for the 
plant. Moreover, the red sands and 
loams mentioned above show rather less 
than the normal amount of iron on an¬ 
alysis; the bright red color is due to 
some variation in the mode of deposition 
of the oxides of iron and not to any ex¬ 
cess in their amount. These facts alone 
render the theory improbable, but the 
chief point is that no direct evidence has 
been adduced for the beneficial effect of 
an application of iron salts, either on 
color or yield. From time to time ex¬ 
periments with iron sulphate have been 
quoted, but they have never been con¬ 
ducted in a manner to raise the supposed 
increase due to the iron beyond the range 
of experimental error. Even had the re¬ 
sults been positive they would have re¬ 
quired further examination, because the 
application of sulphate of iron to the soil 
would result in a variety of secondary ef¬ 
fects, due to the precipitation of the iron 
and the solution of a corresponding 
amount of other bases present. As far 
as color goes, no evidence has ever been 
adduced to show that iron plays a part; 
experiments made by the author upon ap¬ 
ples gave purely negative results; and 
though some effects upon the color of 
carnations were seen, no positive conclu¬ 
sions could be drawn. In practice the 
employment of sulphate of iron for either 
farm or garden crops may be dismissed. 
R. c. COLLISON, 
Associate Agronomist. 
N. Y. Experiment .Station. 
Hotel Waiter: “Are you the gentle¬ 
man who has been ringing all the time, 
sir?” Farmer Hayseed (at the electric 
bell) : “I dunno. I just lost me collar 
stud and was trying to dig this little un 
out of the wall with my knife.”—Mel¬ 
bourne Australasian. 
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’ A 
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V 30 Days’ 
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The Ohio Carriage Mlg.Co. 
Station 225 
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age 
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Mix Your Own Concrete 
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METZ 
\Try t 
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Prepare NOW for 
M ■ * W w M 
Utilize** 
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HUBBARD’S 
B ont? 
AS Hi 
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SOLUBLE CORN 
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THE ROGERS & HUBBARD CO., MIDDLETOWN, CONN. 
Address Dept. A office and works, Portland, conn. 
