The Fertilization of Flowers in Orchards and Vine- 
yards, Especially in its Relation to 
the Production of Fruit. 
{Presented at the Ontario Fruit-Growers’ Association annual and winter meeting at Orillia, 
Ontario, Canada, December 6, 1894.1] 
It is a matter of common observation among fruit-growers that 
certain varieties of orchard and vineyard fruits show a remark- 
able difference in productiveness in different locations without 
sufficient apparent reasons for such a difference. I have in mind 
an apple orchard, 50 or more acres in extent, set chiefly to blocks 
of Baldwin and Greening, each block containing but a single 
variety in the main part of the orchard, but mingled somewhat 
with other varieties in one section. The orchard has been set 
about 25 years and has been a disappointment to its owners 
because, although it usually bears some fruit each year, it has 
produced but three or four good crops in all its history. In the 
sections where other varieties are mingled with the Baldwins, 
they have borne much more satisfactorily than have either the 
Baldwins or Greenings where they stand in blocks alone. The 
trees around the edge are thriftier and bear better than they do 
in the central portion of the orchard. In fact, the central por- 
tion of the orchard has never yet produced a good crop of fruit. 
The owners think the trouble may be due to a combination of 
causes. The trees are planted, but 30 feet apart, which is too 
close for mature trees. The soil in the central portion is thought 
to be naturally inferior to the soil in other sections, where the 
trees are more productive. Hordes of insects have devastated 
some portions of the orchard, and fungous diseases have not 
been wanting. While the orchard is not being impoverished by 
“taking from it farm crops, neither is it being manured nor culti- 
vated. So far as spraying or pruning is concerned, it receives 
much better treatment than most of the orchards in New York 
State. There seems to be good reason for believing that the 
trees are suffering from lack of nourishment, due to crowding 
them too closely together on land not in a high state of fertility ; 
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