The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1905-01-26
Years Experience in Berry Fruit
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Thirty Years ExPerience in Berry Fruit
k8 fs,rszte drowning. 49, @
Thirty years old in any one line
of business is quite patriarchial,
for this has, been a. generation of
changes and frequent adjustments and
establishments. 1t has not fallen to
the lot of many men to hold to n
thing for, so near the third part of. the.
century. / consider myself fortunate
that fate has permitted me to bend
virtually all the energies of my life
to one thing, given me time and OPP
portunity to master it in proportion to
my abilities and to reap a reward that
seems to me greater than my deserts.
And still more fortunate am ] in that
1 have had sons to grow up around me,
Fronting by my experience, to see more
broadly and reach higher, making my
planssand aims their plans and aims,
butSlarger. But l am not writing a
family history, but a treatise. on fruit
growing. ''As,''
In that thirty years learned many
things and had to unlearn many things.
What 1 had to chiefly unlearn was
that the old system of manuring fruits
| was wrong. To me and to my average
contemporaries in those days manure
was manure and fertilizer. fertilizer.
1t occurred to us dimly, 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 loss from lily
balanced manure and fertilizer in those
dark days was enormous, and who will
be bold enough to say that the dark
days are even yet entirely past with
aHso f us?
The three fcrtilizfng properties whicl'
experience has proven Sho:ld be added
to the. soil to make it productive are,
as is. we'll 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
| lions on different soils and FOR different
crops, and their blind and i~njudicious
use works loss in MANY ways.
As nitrogen is the most expensive
it is in that the greatest waste
and loss occurs in the ignorant
~ USE OIEleIl1llGCIS Int 1OS6 10 SESUiGl
IN berry fruit growing than in any
other crop we have, because more fer
tilizer is used on this than is the Gus
tom on other crops and because thu
loss in quantity and quality through
unwise manuring is So great in thi!
crop. "a % g.
My largest crops of fruit have al
~-o ~c o1To cner, 4I,o xoocA IfNor0l nc,
of fertilizer VIXEN rightly proportional
Ny largest crops of disappointment:
have grown rhere the largest guam
tity of lily balanced fertilizer was used
My experience is that 4 perfectly
balanced berry fruit fertilizer should
contain at least two and one-half times
as much potash and twice as mucl
p~hosphoric. acid as it contains am
monia. .-e
My plan in planting Strawberries
dewberries, b~lackberries,. raspberries
&c is to apply cottonseed meal in thu
Cribs before the plants are set at th'
rate of GOO to 800 pounds to the acre
This is sown in the drills and mixed
With the soil and listed on just before
the plants are set in winter or spring
After that no more nitrogen is used il
any form until after the crop is gath
cred the following year.
! depend upon plenty of potash AMI
phosphoric acid TO make the fruit. No
have 1 ever failed in my whole ex
rerience to make a good crop excep
-oae lyear when hail destroyed abou'
Cne-half. I apply potash in the form
of sulphate of potash. which is ,decid
edly the best form for all kinds -Oi
fruit, using about 100 pounds per acre
usually mixed with 300 pounds eoi
acid phosphate or dissolved bone. Thf:
fixture I SOW broadcast pover fht
plants during late fan and winter. L
will undoubtedly pay to use a some
what large quantity of both of these
fertilizers either broadcast before th(
plantsare set or else by chopplng II
;around and between the plants during
THE summer or early fail Potash :Gnt
atmospheric acid, as they are much less
liable to be washed cut and lost thar
ammonia is, can therefore, be. more lib
erally used without loss, as most ei
the fertility of this Kind remains in the
soil until taken up by the plants.
I will add that the largest yield o1
stra wberries which I ever heard e4
being made in this State was growr
by myself under the system of ferfl
$zing above described.
o. w. BLACKNALL.
Kittrell, N. c.
&TEF
- sSA SUbsoilIng.
: A few years ago we saw some rec
clay land, containing little humus,
sub-so1Ied eight to ten inches The
work was doneswith an excellent two