337 
JW  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
Commercial  Fruit  Culture 
Fertilization  of  Apple  Orchards  in  Ohio 
Elements  Needed. — As  with  all  agri¬ 
cultural  crops,  vigor  and  fruitfulness  of 
trees  depend  upon  an  adequate  supply 
of  plant  food  in  the  soil.  Of  the  various 
substances  or  elements  composing  such 
plant  food  there  are  three  of  essential 
importance  —  nitrogen,  phosphorus  and 
potassium.  Of  this  trio  of  essentials  in 
tree  growth  and  fruit  production  nitro¬ 
gen  has  been  found  to  be  the  more  gen¬ 
erally  deficient.  Especially  is  this  true 
of  the  long  tilled  and  cultivated  upland 
or  hilly  areas  where  both  persistent  crop¬ 
ping  and  erosion  have  drawn  heavily 
upon  the  natural  store  of  plant  food — 
and  even  upon  the  soil  itself.  Indeed, 
countless  thousands  of  tons  of  the  finer 
and  better  portions  of  soil  in  the  hilly 
sections  of  our  country  are  annually 
carried  away  from  cultivated  slopes  by 
heavy  rainfall  and  rapidly  flowing  sur¬ 
face  water. 
PnospiiORUS. — Next  in  order  of  de¬ 
ficiency  in  by  far  the  greater  portion 
of  our  upland  soils  is  phosphorus.  This 
deficiency  is  much  more  apparent  in  pro¬ 
duction  of  farm  crops  than  in  the  grow¬ 
ing  of  fruits.  Practically  all  of  our 
apple  orchard  fertilization  experiments  in 
Ohio  have  indicated' that  our  soils  yet 
contain  a  sufficient  supply  of  phosphorus 
for  generous  production  of  fruit ;  for 
rarely  have  we  been  able  to  note  any  dif¬ 
ference  either  in  tree  growth  or  in  yield 
or  character  of  fruit  that  clearly  could 
be  attributed  to  the  use  of  pliosphatie 
plant  food.  However,  in  order  to  secure 
satisfactory  growth  of  leguminous  plants 
where  the  tillage-cover  crop  system  of 
orchard  culture  is  practiced,  or  to  insure 
a  generous  (and  desirable)  admixture  of 
legumes  with  the  grasses  in  case  the 
grass-mulch  method  of  orchard  manage¬ 
ment  is  followed,  the  addition  of  phos- 
phatic  plant  food  usually  is  a  matter  of 
necessity — just  as  it  is  in  profitable  pro¬ 
duction  of  farm  crops.  In  none  of  our 
orchard  fertilization  experiments  has 
potash  given  noticable  .  results.  This 
negative  outcome,  it  reasonably  may  be 
concluded,  is  because  of  the  fact  that 
practically  all  Ohio  apple  orchards  of 
commercial  importance  are  situated  on 
soil  that  is  of  a  clayey  nature,  or  under¬ 
laid  'by  a  subsoil  of  clay.  Potash  in  suf¬ 
ficient  supply  for  tree  fruits  usually  is 
present  where  clay  is  found  either  in 
admixture  with  the  soil  or.  immediately 
below  the  surface.  ( h’chardi  on  land 
that  in  past  ages  gradually  was  formed 
in  alternating  or  conglomerate  layers  of 
water-washed  sand  and  gravel,  such  as 
the  extensive  “flood-plains”  of  marvelous 
depths  in  some  of  our  greater  river  val¬ 
leys,  may  respond  more  or  less  noticeably 
to  application  of  potash;  but  the  upland 
soils,  which  constitute  by  far  the  greater 
proportion  of  our  orchard  areas  in  Ohio, 
are  very  different  in  character  from  those 
just  described.  So  much  for  the  apparent 
relative  importance  of  the  principal  three 
elements  of  plant  food,  as  a  dozen  years' 
to  delay  fertilization  until  the  second 
Spring  after  planting  the  young  orchard, 
until  the  little  trees  shall  have  had  one 
season  in  which  to  recover  from  the  shock 
of  removal  from  the  nursery  row  to  their 
new  location.  For,  in  digging  the  young 
trees  from  the  nursery  rows,  more  or  less 
exposure  to  sun  and  air  at  the  nursery, 
temporary  storage,  packing  and  trans¬ 
portation,  and  additional  exposure  and 
hardship  at  their  point  of  destination, 
these  young  trees  will  have  lost  practi¬ 
cally  all  of  their  finer  and  fibrous  feeding 
roots  and  rootlets.  Many  of  the  larger 
roots,  too,  will  have  been  cut.  broken  and 
splintered,  and  these  injuries  should  be 
dressed  by  use  of  sharp  pruning  knives 
or  shears.  Hence  does  it  become  neces- 
conneetion  is:  “How  much  nitrate  of 
soda  should  be  used  around  trees  of  dif¬ 
ferent  ages  or  sizes?’’  Obviously  no  one 
can  determine  exactly  the  need-  of  a 
young,  growing  tree,  or  of  one  that  has 
attained  bearing  age.  The  best  that  may 
be  done  is  to  estimate  as  nearly  as  pos¬ 
sible  the  quantity  of  plant  food  that  may¬ 
be  utilized  by  such  trees  with  neither  ex¬ 
cessive  waste  nor  serious  want.  In  our 
orchard  fertilization  experiments  in  Ohio, 
w’here  the  soil  clearly  is  very  deficient  in 
nitrogenous  plant  food,  we  have  devised 
and  adopted  the  schedule  which  follows, 
and  which  we  believe  to  be  reasonable, 
practical  and  especially  suitable  for  the 
thin  upland  soils,  of  Central,  Eastern 
and  Southern  Ohio:  For  apple  trees 
that  have  been  planted  one  year  we  be¬ 
gin  with  one-fourth  pound  of  nitrate  of 
soda  per  tree — just  a  good  “man-size” 
handful.  This  should  be  scattered  evenly 
over  a  circle  or  belt  under  the  outer  ex¬ 
tremities  of  the  branches — not  closer 
than  12  inches  to  the  bases  of  the  little 
trees.  Each  succeeding  season  thereafter 
the  application  of  nitrate  is  increased  at 
the  rate  of  one-fourth  pound  per  tree. 
Thus  at  two  years  after  planting  the 
trees  will  receive  one-half  pound  of 
nitrate  each ;  at  three  years  three-fourths 
of  a  pound  each ;  at  four  years  one 
pound.  At  this  uniform  annual  rate  of 
increase  of  application  the  trees  at  eight 
years  will  receive  two  pounds  each  ;  at 
12  years  three  pounds;  at  KJ  years  four 
pounds;  at  20  years  five  pounds,  etc.  if 
too  much  wood  growth  should  be  caused 
by  this  rate  of  application  the  quantity 
of  nitrate  may  be  lessened  ;  if  there  be 
evidence  that  the  trees  are  not  getting 
as  much  nitrogenous  plant  food  as  they 
need,  the  rate  of  application  may  be 
slightly  increased.  However,  the  sched¬ 
ule  as  given,  under  poor  soil  conditions 
here  in  Ohio,  has  proved  to  be  a  rather 
dependable  one. 
Apply  in  'Spring. — Nitrogenous  plant 
food  should  be  applied  early  in  Spring 
just  as  the  leaf  buds  are  beginning  to 
swell.  If  sulphate  of  ammonia  be  used 
as  the  source  of  nitrogen  (and  it  seems 
to  be  equally  desirable)  one-fifth,  by 
weight,  limy  be  applied,  as  it  is  richer  in 
its  ability  to  afford  nitrogen  than  is 
nitrate  of  soda.  An  important  point  in; 
tree  fertilization — -one  that  ever  should 
be  kept  in  mind— is  that  the  plant  food 
must  be  distributed  beneath  the  outer  ex¬ 
tremities  of  the  longer  horizontal 
branches.  Indeed,  the  circular  area  cov¬ 
ered  should  be  somewhat  larger  than  the 
spread  of  branches,  no  matter  what  may¬ 
be  the  size  or  age  of  the  tree.  For  or¬ 
chards  on  thin  land,  cared  for  by  the 
grass-mulch  method  of  culture,  a  good 
plan  for  fertilization  is  to  annually  give 
a  basiic  application  of  a&id  phosphate  tit 
An  unfertilized  and  a  fertilized  row  of  apple  .trees  in  Southeastern  Ohio  at  the  dose 
of  a  five-year  period  of  experimental  work.  The  unfertilized  row  (left)  produced  an 
average  of  36.7  barrels  of  apples  per  acre  per  year  for  a  five-year  period.  The  fer¬ 
tilized  row  (right)  produced  an  average  of  118.1  barrels  per  acre  per  year  for  the 
same  period  of  five  years.  Same  variety  in  both  rows,  and  treatment  exactly  the 
same,  except  in  the  matter  of  fertilization. 
experiments  in  apple  orchard  fertilization  sary  for  newly  planted  trees  to  devote  a 
in  Ohio  generally  have  shown.  Let  us  number,  of  weeks  of  the  first  season  after 
now  give  rather  careful  consideration  to  planting  to  repair  of  losses,  injuries  and 
use  of  nitrogenous  and  pliosphatie  plant  niutiliations  sustained  by  their  root  sys- 
foods  in  the  orchard.  terns.  And  not  until  the  wounds  of  the 
When  to  Fertilize- — It  well  may- be  larger  roots  have  become  callused,  new 
stated  at  this  point  that  there  is  little  to  roots  sent  out.  and  at  least  a  small  system 
be  gained  by  application  of  quickly  avail-  of  fibrous  feeding  rootlets  reproduced, 
.able  plant  food,  such  as  nitrate  of  soda  can  newly  set  trees  avail  themselves  of 
or  sulphate  of  ammonia,  to  little  trees  .  plant  food  either  naturally  or  artificially 
.at  the  beginning  of  their  first  season’s  -  supplied  in  the  soil, 
growth  after  transplanting  from  the  nur-  blow  Much  Nitrate?  —  A  question 
ser.v.  In  other  words,  it  is  just  as  well  that  almost  invariably  is  asked  in  this 
nggyjA 
is 
•*  v  •  it 
This  Always  Was  and  Always  Will  be  True 
USE  THE  MAPES 
FERTILIZERS 
The  Standard  for  Half  a  Century 
BASIS-BONE  AND  GUANO 
Availability  Without  Acidity 
Choicest  and  Most  Varied  Forms  of  Plant  Food 
We  are  pleased  to  announce  that  during  the  Fall  and  early  Winter  we  have  received  two  cargoes  of 
the  highest  grade  Peruvian  Guano,  and  that  ample  stocks  are  assured  for  a  long  time  to  come. 
Send  for  Price  List  and  Descriptive  Circular 
THE  MAPES  FORMULA  &  PERUVIAN  GUANO  CO. 
Hartford  Branch :  239  State  Street,  Hartford,  Conn. 
143  Liberty  Street,  New  York  City,  N.  Y. 
