The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1878-12-11
SEINE OF the Secrets:.cf Success in
Fruit.GrOwing.

The complaints OI AoAuI On IA AA"AU'
growing are SO general, and so near
" cover the whole range Of fruit pro-
duction, that scarcely too much space
can be given to the consideration OF
success and failures both, with the
view to increase the one and lessen
.be other, and to such an extent that
every farm shall produce fruit OF all
kinds in abundance, and every home
be fully supplied with them without
an extravaganza outlay. ~
Starting off with the consideration
Of the fact that when the soil was
virgin and the country new, the pro-
duction OF fruits down the whole
long line of tho season, from early
strawberries to late apples and pears,
was so easy and SO certain that they
seemed to grow like spontaneous
fruits of the earth. And further, con-
sidering.as settlement increased and
with increased crops taken from the
soil, without any corresponding re-
turn to them, failures in fruit-produc-
ton have gradually become more and
more widesprsad::and.s general, till
failures are more common than sue
cess, and we hear little about grapes,
except az associated with mildew and
the rot; and less about pears, except
in connection with the all prevailing
blight. From such consideration, we
say, we may fairly infer that the Sc
eret Of non-success in fruit-growingi ia
to be attributed, to very great OK,
tent, to the exhaustion of the soil OF
certain elements Of plant food, and
that if we only restore as nearly as
we can original condition we shall in
a measure get back upon our ground,
and again succeed in fruit-growing.
From ninety-fve to ninety-eight
Der cent. of the total materials out OF
which Vegetation is made up comes
from the atmosphere, and the atmos'
phere being always abundantin guam
tity, and constant, or nearly so, in sub
stance, we have no occasion to concern
ourselves with this large source offood
supply. But it is ofthe remaining two
to five per cent. in which we are inter-
ested, and thisis taken upfromthe earth
and is represented by the ash when
vegetation is burned. This ash, in
nearly every case, is mostly composed
of potash, lime, soda, phosphoric acid,
and many other mineral substances,
of which potash and phosphoric acid
are the more important substances in
the case of all fruits, and especially
such fruits as are more or less sour
at or before the period Of ripening'
But potash and phosphoric acid have
arstrong tendency to keep close to
the surface, and this is especially true
of cultivated. lands; and for that
reason fruit trees often refuse to bear
on soils containing those salts in
abundance, simply because the feed
ing roots can't get at them.
One Of the secrets Of successful
fruit growing, then, would seem t'
be to restore to the soil, by the use o
ashes of other vegetation, the miner
al salts of which they have been de
prived and where these minerals ar
still abundant, but stick to the surface
TO find some means Of putting then
in contact with the feeding roots. l
then we make a liberal use of Goa
ashes or a less liberal one OF the ashe
of wood and spread them under trul
trees. and fork them in, we restore t
the soil these mineral substances, tn
absence of which is the chief, ifnot tn
only cause of barrenness. But tn
feeding-roots of trees, and especial,
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trees of some age, are not at or nea
the trunk, but lie spread beneath tn
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