New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 451 
and phosphoric acid in varying combinations to suit different 
conditions, are the chief essentials for feeding worn-out orchards. 
Some soils require a good liming. Nitrogen is best supplied 
through an occasional cover crop of clovers. Stable manure may 
be needéd to improve the physical conditions of the soil as well 
as to supply food. With the nitrogen supplied with a cover crop, 
an annual dressing of one part each of acid phosphate, ground 
bone and muriate of potash at the rate of from one thousand 
to fifteen hundred pounds per acre should be applied ; these fertilizers 
should be varied in accordance with the soil, kind of fruit, variety, 
and age and vigor of the trees. Apply fertilizers before growth 
starts in the spring and work them in with a cultivator. 
Remove old bark and diseased portions of trunk and limbs.— The 
shaggy bark of old trees harbors injurious insects and fungi and 
often indicates a hidebound condition of the tree. With a short- 
handled hoe scrape off this rough bark. With a draw-shave or 
sharp knife remove all signs of cankers, body blights, gummosis, 
dead spots, borers or other troubles of the wood. Some or all of 
these are to be found in neglected orchards, 
Put im practice a system of spraying.— Follow the above cleans- 
ing process, before buds swell, with a thorough spraying of strong 
copper sulphate—one pound to fifteen gallons of water —to 
‘destroy moss, lichens and fungi. Apply the seasonal sprayings for 
the several fruits. (Consult Bulletins 170 and 243 from this 
Station. ) 
Plow each Spring and cultivate through the growing season.— 
Worn-out orchards are usually in sod, and no matter what the 
system of tillage advocated may be, the breaking up of the sod, 
and subsequent tilling for several seasons must hold first. place 
as a means of renovating old orchards. Turn up the soil, as 
shallow as possible at the first attempt, in the Spring and shake 
it out with the cultivator several times during the season that 
sunlight and air may enter in; that bacteria may live and work; 
that moisture may be conserved; that grass cannot take the cream 
of the land; and that the storehouses of potash and phosphoric 
acid may be unlocked. 
Make yearly use of cover crops—— The soil of worn-out orchards 
is usually in poor physical condition and the most expedient way 
