10 
Colorado Experiment Station. 
centages of nitrogen recovered as ammonia from the nitrogenous 
fertilizers: 
From cottonseed meal 43.47% ; dried blood 23.55% 1 alfalfa 
meal 8.72% ; flaxseed meal .10%. 
Sample No. 7. 
This sample was obtained from an orchard where the niter 
trouble has been very severe for the past three. years. The first trees 
died in 1908, and the owner, believing that they were short of plant 
food, had given that section of the orchard a heavy dressing of 
stable manure. The next year, the attack started in with renewed 
vigor, in spite of the fertilizer, and has grown rapidly worse until 
five or six acres of a once profitable orchard are worthless. The 
soil is a sandy loam and the ammonification test gave the following 
results: 
From cottonseed meal, 46.40% of the total nitrogen was re¬ 
covered as ammonia; dried blood 32.75%; alfalfa meal 10.61%; 
flaxseed meal 3.99%. 
Sample No. 8. 
This soil was obtained from a young orchard which has been 
reset for the past eight or nine years with the hope of getting a suc¬ 
cessful stand. Many of the trees died the same year that they 
were put out, while some have struggled along for three and four 
seasons just able to keep alive. Occasionally, a tree is found which 
shows no symptoms of niter and which is making a good growth. The 
space between the trees is planted to .alfalfa, and in many parts of 
the orchard barren spots are visible. Before this shade crop was 
put in, one had no difficulty at all in discerning the brown color of 
the soil and the dark stains on the irrigating furrows, so character¬ 
istic of A. chroococcmn. The soil is a clay loam and the sample' 1 
for the ammonification experiment was taken from a bare spot 
where a tree had died. 
The percentages of nitrogen recovered as ammonia were as fol¬ 
lows : 
From cottonseed meal 51.98% ; dried blood 47.98% ; alfalfa 
meal 15.30%; flaxseed meal 1.12%. 
Sample No. 9. 
I visited this orchard the last time in the fall of 1911 at pick¬ 
ing season, and the picture it presented was indeed a deplorable 
sight. Tree after tree had died loaded with half grown fruit. 
Many were bending to the ground with beautiful red apples, but 
there was not enough vitality left in the body to bring them to ma¬ 
turity. Occasionally there was a tree, scattered among these, which 
appeared perfectly normal, and again there would be those that 
showed the injury in a mild degree, possibly a little burning on the 
water sprouts or on a small limb. Five acres of the orchard were 
lost during 1910 and at least three acres more last year. The dis- 
