Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1904-01-25
Thirty Years' Experience In Berry Fruit
Gro wing.

Thirty Years Experience In Berry Fruit
Growing.
Thirty years old i'll any Il line
of business is quite patriarchial,
for this has been Il generation of
changes and frequent adjustments and
establishments. 1t has not fallen to
the let of many men to hold to one
century. l consider myself fortunate
that fate has permitted me to bend
virtually all the energies of my life
to one thing, given me time and op-
p%oriunity to master it in proportion to
my abilities and to reap a reward thai
seems to me greater than my deserts.
And still more fortunate an l in that
l have had ons to grow up around me,
profiting by my experience, to see more
broadly and reach higher, making my
plans and aims their plans and aims,
but larger. But l am not writing Il
family history, but a treatise on fruit
growing
In that thirty years I learned many
things and had to unlearn many. things.
What I had, to chiefly unlcarn was
that the old system of manuring fruits
was wrong. To me and to my average
contemporaries in those days manure
was II and fertilizer. fertilizer.
1t occurred to us dilnly, if at all, that
as different animals required different
kinds of food and in different proper
tions, so did different plants and crops.
And / will add that the less from lily
balanced manure and fertilizer in those
dark Gays was enormous, and who will
be bold enough to say that the dark
days are even yet entirely past With
all of us?
The three fcrtilizing properties which,
experience has proven sho;.ld be added
to the soil to make it productive are,
as is well known, nitrogen, potash and
phosphoric acid. All of these are es-
:sential, one as much as the other, but
they are needed in different proper
7tions on different soils and for different
crops, and their blind and ipjudicious
use works loss in many ways.
IS nitrogen is the most expensive
it is in that the greatest waste
and loss occurs in the ignorant
use of fertilizers. The loss is greater
in berry fruit growing than in any
other crop we have, because nor fey
tiliZer is used ON this than is the GUS
tom on other crops and because the
loss in quantity and quality through
" =, w icn ~ tJ-t1, &c. CO rnoL II, 41,tc
crop.
My largest crops OF fruit have al
ways come from the most liberal use
of fertilizer when rightly proportioned.
My largest crops of iisappointments
have grown where the largest guam
THY Of lily balanced fertilizer was used
My experience is that Il perfectly
balanced berry fruit fertilizer should
contain at least two and onc-half times
rs much potash and twice as much
phosphoric @cM as it contains Id
.Mcnia.
My plan i'll planting Strawberries
,deWberries, biackberries, raspberries
etc, is to apply cottonsced meal in The
Cribs before the plants are set at ths
rate Of COG to 500 pounds to the acre
This is sown III tie drills and mixed
with the SOL and listed on just before
the plants are set in winter Or spring
After that no nitrogen is used ii
any form unfit after the crop is gath
cred the following. year.
I depend upon plenty Of potash ant
| ,.,o-,,i,o1t ociJ T,. M, 1-o 4lc fpr;t No,
have l ever failed in my whole OK
per.ence to make a good crop except
ole year when hail destroyed about
>Cnc-half. 1 apply potash in the form
of sulphate of potash. which is decid
.cIly the best form for all kinds q
fruit. using about 100 pounds per acre
usually mixed with 300 pounds OF
acid phosphate OF dissolved bone. This
%r1iNture I SOW broadcast over tie
plants during late fall and winter. I
Will undoubtedly pay to use Il some
what large quantity tof both of these
fertilizers either broadcast before t,t
plants are set or else by 'chopping il
:around and between the plants during
the summer OF early fall. Potash an(
'pl1ospEoric acid, as fi1ey arc much less
liable to be washed out and lost thar
ammonia is, a therefore be more lib
prally used without loss. as most OF
Che fertility Of this Kind remains in the
4 ao1l until taken W by The plants.
/ twill add that the largest yield OF
! strawberries which I ever heard OF
I being made in this State was grown
| 10y myself under the system of fertil
552tffg above described.
o. W. ELACkNALL.
Kittrell, n. &C.