HARRISONS’ NURSERIES, BERLIN, MARYLAND 
12 
# 
When you spray, get a sprayer big enough—one that is adapted to your needs 
FERTILIZING 
Crops that pay big profits are unnaturally heavy 
crops, and to get them we must feed the trees. 
Soil itself never is food for the trees—it merely 
carries plant-food—and it must be finely and deeply 
pulverized, loosened and filled with decaying 
vegetable matter before roots can absorb the food. 
Decay is mostly the action of bacteria. Lime is 
not a plant-food to any extent, but is much needed 
by trees, to help them use plant-food and to help 
put the soil in good physical shape. 
Make your soil fine and loose before you add 
fertilizer, and you will not need to add so much. 
No two pieces of land are alike in plant-food needs. 
Learn to know what elements are lacking, and supply 
them in right proportions. 
Potash, nitrogen and phosphoric acid are the 
plant-foods that have to be supplied. Nitrogen 
usually is best obtained through leguminous cover- 
crops. Potash and phosphorus have to be supplied 
in chemical form. 
Nitrogen is the growing material, making wood 
and size in fruit; potash goes into fruit largely, 
making flavor and color; phosphoric acid goes into 
wood and seeds, but only a fifth as much of it is 
used as of potash. 
Cover-crops disintegrate and pulverize soil, add 
to it organic matter, prevent plant-food from leach¬ 
ing and (the legumes) add nitrogen. The kind to use 
depends on your locality and your soil. 
Get plant-foods on the ground evenly, over a 
space at least twice as wide as the branches cover, 
and apply it at the right season. 
Double crops pay, but you must supply plant- 
food and moisture for everything that grows on the 
land. Do not rob the trees. 
Stable manure is one of the best fertilizers for 
feeding a young growing orchard. Scatter the ma¬ 
nure on top of the ground around the trees, at least 
as far from the trunks as the branches extend so 
that the fine fibrous roots can take up the fertilizing 
elements. (See our book “How to Grow and 
Market Fruit” for full information.) 
SPRAYING 
Spraying is a vital necessity if money is to be 
made from fruit. It doesn’t pay to doubt this, and 
it doesn’t pay to miss one season, even if enemies 
are not visible. Spraying has an invigorating effect 
on trees, besides controlling enemies. 
There are three classes of enemies spraying will 
control—chewing insects, sucking insects and fungi. 
Each class requires a different remedy, but the 
remedies can be combined most of the time. 
Spraying during the dormant period is distinctly 
different from spraying on foliage. Materials several 
times as strong can be used and are needed to con¬ 
trol the scales. 
On account of the life-habits of enemies, often 
only two to seven days are available for any one 
spraying. Do the work then. Put the material on 
with force and cover every inch of bark and leaf. 
Get a sprayer that is big enough, that will give 
one hundred to two hundred and fifty pounds of 
air-pressure, that is adapted to your land and trees, 
and that is durable. Get a power outfit, if possible, 
for it does better work than a hand-pump can. 
The spraying programme ordinarily resolves 
itself into two, three or four applications—one while 
trees are dormant, with lime-sulphur solution, and 
the others on blossoms and fruit with self-boiled 
lime-sulphur, or diluted lime-sulphur, with arsenate 
of lead added, or maybe with bordeaux and lead. 
All applications must be guided by careful study. 
Borers will attack fruit trees in spite of all we 
can do, and will kill many trees if left alone. Trees 
must be gone over several times each year, and 
should be gone over each April and August. Spray¬ 
ing and painting with lime-sulphur sediment will 
help in keeping down the numbers of borers. 
Keep trash and mulches at least 6 inches away 
from tree trunks, and tramp snow about trees in 
late winter, to prevent mice damage. (See our book 
“How to Grow and Market Fruit” for full infor¬ 
mation as to when and how to spray, what to use, 
and complete formulas for making the necessary 
mixtures.) 
COME TO BERLIN AND SEE THE TREES IN HARRISONS’ NURSERIES 
