The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-20
Mineral Mannres for Fruit.

/ undertaken on large scale.
Mineral Nanures for Fruit.
The cultivation and growing of fruit is
each year becoming more nearly an exact
science, says the America Cultivator 1t
used to be thought that when the trees
were set and allowed to grow for an indef-
mite and uncertain number of years they
might begin to bear fruit, either alternate
seasons or at longer intervals, if insects,
| frosts and other unfavorable conditions in
| terfered. The idea of making the fruit crop
| a certainty ever year was in comparatively
! recent times secuted as an absurdity. Yet,
il is just this idea that the majority of
progressive fruit growers are aiming at,
and, which, with regard to some kinds of
| fruit, has been achieved. The small fruit
| crop is only prevented from being a GER
tainty every year by spring frosts and
summer droughts. Both of these are meas
uraby within control of the fruit grower.
BY means of irrigation, which the small
| fruit crop viii generally pay for, drought
| is no longer feared, but rather welcomed.
| All the nou-irrigated berries will be wholly
or partially failures, securing good paying
prices to those whose crops are saved by
| irrigation.
! Yet even with regard to small fruits few
suspect that it is water in the soil to make
mineral fertilizers available, which main
| ly makes IL so necessary in growing small
| fruits. They are, indeed, largely composed
of water. But unless the fruit be watery
and of poor quality the water which the
| roots take to the vines must have its due
proportion of mineral constituents to give
| the fruit color and qaulity, as well as to
| perfect the seeds. 1t is probable also that
| the sunlight is needed for this. In wet
1 muggy and cloudy weather, though there
may be mineral substance in the plant to
| 49, IL tH,a fptrf Mill ALL a
! high quality which it would have If the
suns light on the leaves had supplied it
with carbonaceous matter. In fact this is
sugar In the potato it is starch. The min
eral keeps the leaves healthy, and nature
does the rest.
AS the importance of giving plenty of
mineral fertilizers to trees is better appre-
ciated, there is much less waste of stable
manure on them, which makes a great
| growth of leaf and wood at the expense of
fruit bearing. 1t is better for a young
tree TO not make more than u to Is inches
of new wood per year. 1t will do this on
cultivated soil that is rich enough to grow
corn crops without any except mineral
manures, and these chiefly potash. If
these do not keep the tree in bearing con-
dition, the reason is probably because veg
etable matter in the soil has decreased UNI
til it can no longer furnish carbonic acid
! gas to keep the mineral plant food solu-
BILE. In such case either stable manure
or green manure should be plowed under
until the supply of humus is restored.
II requires heavier applications of min-
eraI manure for orchards than farmers
are used to giving to their grain crops.
! One hundred and fifty pounds of phos-
plate per acre are as much as the grain
crop can probably use Such small
| dressing would be only a small part of
what a bearing orchard requires. Owing
to the tendency of mineral fertilizers to
| revert to insoluble forms, it is well TO APP
ply a moderate dressing each year, and
largely increase this in the years when
the orchard has set a large crop of fruit.
For it's effect in increasing size color
and quality of apples, a thousand pounds
of phosphate and potash would be none
too much to apply per acre in bearing
| orchard. 1t does not pay to be penurious
in mineral fertilizers when fruit trees are
| bearing. The presence of fruit buds can
be determined by the experienced fruit
| grower the fall before the tree will bios
som. This allows time to procure and APP
ply the mineral fertilizer during the win
| ter before the crop is to be grown. If the
fertilizer is in soluble condition none of ii
will be wasted, as tree roots run deeply
and are ready to grasp every particle of
plant within their reach.
Some fruit growers apply phosphate in
the shape of old bones broken up and
scattered around the field If these are
roots will soon surround them and keep
the tree vigorous so long as it's phosphate
remains in the bone. All the animal mat
ter and phosphate will be taken first, and
| the roots will run through the marrow of
the bones, leaving only the lime for which
the tree has comparatively little use.
Sometimes dead animals are buried in the
orchards If this is done in the center be-
tween four trees all of them will send
their roots to feast on the supplies of nj
| trogenous and mineral nutrition which
| the decaying animal affords. 1t is sur
prising how far tree roots will go in
search of decaying animals which are
planted even beyond what would be
thought to be beyond their natural range.
Some very surprising stories have been
told with regard to this, indicating that
there is a semi-instinct amounting almost
| to intelligence in this regard. The most
remarkable of these stories is that Of
farmer who left a manure heap sixty feet
or more from an apple tree The manure
| was removed after it had rotted down
but a year or two later the farmer noted
that the tree greatly increased in vigor
and on digging below the manure heap,
a mass of apple tree roots showed that
the tree had sent its roots fully sixty feet
to the supply of food that it needed This
| distance is twice as far apart as many
trees in orchards are planted. No wonder
the roots of trees cross each other long
before their tops do. This probably helps
| young trees to come earlier into bearing
But it emphasizes the necessity of heavily
manuring old orchards, and especially
| with mineral fertilizers, in order to keep
| them in bearing condition.
|
Having a. Garden