Vie RURAL NEW-YORKER 
303 
Soil and Fertility Notes 
Lime on the Apple Orchard 
I would like some information on apply¬ 
ing lime to apple trees. Our trees are 
from three to eight years old. on thin 
shale hill ground. The lime I must take 
in payment of a bill. It is burnt lump 
lime, right from the kiln. I want to put 
on as much as will do good. How much 
can I put on and what shall the results 
be? What fertilizers may he used with 
a heavy application of lime? w. E. M. 
Virginia. 
We have never been able to see any 
particular benefit' from lime applied to 
apple orchard, except on the grass or cover 
crop. The apple, or at least most va- i 
rieties, prefers a soil slightly acid, and 
the tree does not seem to thrive so well 
on an alkaline soil. Some varieties may 
do better than others. The reasou for 
using lime freely in the orchard is to en¬ 
courage the growth of clover or other 
crops grown for plowing under. Unless 
these crops are to be grown in the orchard 
we need not use the lime there—but 
rather on crops like clover, grass, grain 
or garden crops. Bone is a good form of 
phosphorus to use with lime, or nitrate 
of soda can be used to supply nitrogen. | 
The popular way in modern orcharding 
is to use clover. Soy beans or cow peas 
plowed under to furnish most of the nitro¬ 
gen, with lime to fit the soil for these 
cover crops, and acid phosphate to feed 
them. 
Dissolving Bones for Fertilizer 
I have quite a lot of dry bones. Can you 
tell me what I can use to dissolve them so 
I can use them as a fertilizer? s. J. 
This question comes up every year, and 
we have frequently answered it. In 
crushing hard bone the manufacturers 
are obliged to use very powerful machines 
or else dissolve the bones with sulphuric 
acid. We do not advise the use of this 
acid on the farm or by amateurs. It is 
too dangerous to play with. The bones 
may be burned, putting them in a common 
bonfire with wood or other trash. This 
burning drives off the nitrogen, but leaves 
the rest of the bone in a fine ash. which 
is valuable chiefly for lime and phosphoric 
acid. The loss of the nitrogen can be pre¬ 
vented to a large extent by packing the 
bones in a barrel or box between layers of 
unleached wood ashes. The bones should 
be thoroughly mixed with ashes and the 
mass should be kept reasonably moisb 
with liquid manure or water. In about 
three months all except the very hard 
bones will be softened so that they can 
be mashed with a heavy spade. While 
they are not equal to bonemeal in this 
form, they are fine enough to be spread 
fairly well, and will give fair results. 
Cesspool Sludge for Fertilizer 
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I have a plot of about'one-fourth of au 
acre which has been used as a garden 
for three years. This Spring I desire to 
Sow it with oats and seed it down to 
grass. A man who empties cesspools of¬ 
fers to put this sludge on the land. What 
is your advice; would it be detrimental, 
in your judgment, or beneficial? 
Monson, Mass. H. G. b. 
We have used considerable quantities 
of this stuff. It contains nitrogen and 
also considerable fat—the latter not being 
good for the soil. We have found that 
lime used with this sludge improves it. 
Our plan has been to spread the sludge 
over the ground in Winter, plow under in 
Spring and harrow in at least one ton of 
good lime per acre. 
Lime and Wood Ashes 
Last year I plowed up the strawberry 
bed for planting my potatoes, then I put 
wood ashes in the row before planting the 
potatoes. I then planted the potatoes 
and put lime mi the top and harrowed it 
in. and the potatoes were scabby. Would 
it be advisable for me to use the same 
seed this year? w. it. c. 
Vineland, N. J. 
That is the usual report where wood 
ashes and lime are used on potatoes. 
There is an increase of scab. Wo would 
not use these scabby tubers for seed. You 
can kill most of the scab germs by soak¬ 
ing the seed tubers in a solution of one 
pint of formalin to 30 gallons of water, 
but new, clean, seed will pay you better. 
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Why Add to a Fertile Soil? 
Certainly a fertile soil is one that is able to produce good crops 
But maximum protection cannot be maintained without a 
sufficient supply of available plant food in the soil to keep the 
crop growing constantly and rapidly from start to finish. 
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