324 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ocr., 1897. 
There is one subject which I think may very fairly be considered when speakin 
about manuring, and that is the thinning of fruits. ‘his is a matter so often neglecte 
that its importance cannot be too frequently or too strongly hammered into all who 
grow fruit. The one great aim of every plant and of every creature is to prolong 
not so much its own life, as that of its species in its offspring. Fruit trees, as well as 
other plants, carry out this aim in the production of seeds, and in these seeds or fruits 
are concentrated the most important of the elements obtained by the plants from the 
soil. It therefore stands to reason that the greater the number of seeds or fruits that 
are matured, the larger the drain on the soil. The following valuable information. 
given in the report of the Agricultural Experiment Station, California, throws much 
light on the amount of important soil ingredients contained in fruit, flesh of fruits, as 
well as those in the seeds, which are removed from the soil :— 
A crop of— 
Takes Potash. Phosphoric Acid. Nitrogen. 
Lb. Lb. Lb. Lb. 
Prunes ... ... 80,000 24 79°70 03 15°95 on 4440 
Pits st +e, 1,630 xx) 2°06 ah 2°80 oy: 10°30 
Flesh. ... 28,365 ons 77°64 ers 13°15 ax 3400 
Apricots ... ... 380,000 are 84°98 mae 21°38 ne 68°70 
Pits oar: «. 1,740 nee 1°36 oe 5°36 oo 15°00 
WEA ... 28,260 mee 83°62 as 16°02 an 53°70 ~ 
Oranges ... ... 20,000 <p 42°28 na 10°60 od 36°60 
Seeds... vet 240, ax 2°74 Ts 1°61 
Flesh and rind ... 19,760 eh 89°54 ie 8:99 
Any fruit-grower making use of this table could form a fairly approximate 
estimate annually of the annual amount of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash 
removed by his crop of fruit. 
If the fruit be thinned when first formed, the least chance of waste would occur. 
In a recent Californian fruit paper, I noticed a paragraph stating that some orange- 
grower was wise enough to dig into the soil around his orange trees all his poor, 
almost useless oranges, instead of sending them to market. The result was a great 
improvement in his trees. 
Professor E. B. Voorhus, director of the New Jersey State Agricultural 
Experiment Station, gave, at a meeting of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society 
last year, particulars of some important experiments made in manuring fruit trees 
to ascertain “‘the comparative effect of an annual supply of what was deemed a sufficient 
quantity of the best forms of the three plant food elements—nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid, and potash—when used singly, and in various combinations; and of large 
applications of barnyard manure.” ‘The experiment included thirteen plots, each one- 
tenth of an acre in area, and containing thirteen trees. Each of the fertilised plots 
received an annual application of 150 Ib. of nitrate of soda, 350 1b. of bone black 
superphosphate, or 130 1b. of muriate of potash per acre, thus furnishing an equivalent 
of 24 lb. of actual nitrogen or 56 ib. of ‘available’ phosphoric acid, or 75 lb. of 
actual potash, on the three plots which received single elements, and combinations of 
these amounts of two of the elements on three other plots, and a combination of all, or 
a complete fertiliser on one plot. In addition, two plots were not manured; one 
received land plaster at the rate of 100 lb. per acre, and one barn-yard manure 
at the rate of 20 tons per acre, and one barn-yard manure at the rate of 10 tons and 
lime at the rate of 50 bushels per acre. Accurate records were kept cach year of the 
health and vigour of the trees, and of the yield of the various plots. The soil—a clay 
loam with clay subsoil—was of medium natural fertility, responding readily to 
manures; its mechanical condition good, and fairly representative of the soil in the 
peach-growing sections of New Jersey. 
At this point I will give detailed results and comparisons only in case of the plots 
without manure, with a complete manure, and with barnyard manure. 
The average age of an orchard in our State is about eight years, during which 
eriod three full crops are usually secured. I therefore give the average yield in 
Peete for the average period of the life of the orchard for the whole period of the 
experiment and for the crop years. 
1. Tae YiELD witHouT Manure. 
Bushels per Acre. 
Aeey 
1884. to 1891 inclusive, 8 years, average per year or er) 
1881 ,, 1893 ,, 10 ,, ? 4 ee US 
1887 ,, 1891 » (5 crop years) 5) as ... 1050 
WE TE Wey Pheer ae wan eesee 
