The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1899-07-12
Fruit Growing on wornout Land.

A man should plant his fruit and
everything else on the very best soil
he can, using judgment and discrim-
ination of course. / write the follow
ing merely to show what can be done
when one is driven to use very poor
land.
Some years ago, wishing to consid-
erably extend my straw wberry acreage,
and having no other land convenient,
WAS forced to make use of some no.
torious for its poverty. Farming on
it made the unhappy tenant such n
butt for all the wags of the neighbor-
hood that it had come to pass that no
one would cultivate it. 1t was jocose-
ly affirmed that it was so poor and
weak that the effort to sprout pea
made it grunt.
Some of the land I sowed in peas for
year before planting in strawberries.
Some after plowing well and manur-
ing as follows, put in strawberries
at once. There was considerable di-
yersity of soil ranging from extreme
sandiness, through 'crawiishy" pipe
clay to little stiff red clay in places.
As the soil was depleted of every in
gredient of plant food, especially of
potash, manurel it heavily, one ton
kainit, 500 pounds cotton-seed meal
and 500 pounds acid phosphate per
acre.
About three-fourths of this was
sown broadcast and well narrowed in
before planting, except 800 pounds of
the cottonseed meal, which was APP
piled in the drill; half the remainder
was applied as a top dressing over the
plants the following November, and
what was left was sown likewise the
following March. In using heavy
quantities of fertilizers like this as q
top dressing, scatter it over the
whole field, middles as well as beds.
What falls on the plants will do no
harm, provided it is applied only in
winter while the plants are in n dor
mant state.
Now for the result. My plants
made q quick and magnificent growth.
/ never saw finer or more vigorous
ones. The wags quit laughing before
June was out. Although the summer
was dry, they maintained healthy
condition and grew till cold weather
set in.
The next spring that field was the
earliest to bloom and the earliest to
ripen of any field that | had. The
berries were largo and we'll colored
and sold as well as any that grew that
year. The yield, while not rs heavy
as that on some of my richer plots,
which had been heavily manured for
years, was a large one and paid well.
Since then the field has kept up and
even increased its yield. But / have
fed it literally, especially with potash
manures, kainit and muriate of potash.
Where heavy yearly applications are
made it is better to use, say, 600
pounds kainit and 400 to 600 pounds
muriate of potash.
The ammonia in cotton-seed meal
or in nitrate of soda gives fine plant
growth. The phosphoric acid in acid
phosphate or dissolved bone aids the
plant growth and enters in a consid-
erable degree in the formation OF the
fruit. The potash in kainit or muri-
ate of potash, while promoting plant
growth, enters in very large degree
indeed in the making OF the fruit OF
berry.
Stable manure or any fresh rich
land will make as fine plant growth
as one can wish to see. And often
very good crops of berries can be thus
grown. But heavy crops of the finest
berries or fruit of any kind can be
grown only when the desideratum
potash is supplied in quantities com.
mensurate with the demand. And
yearly heavy cropping calls for yearly
heavy supply, if there is to be no fall
ing Off in yield. A. Blacknall in
American Cultivator.