The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1905-01-19
SOUTHERN : FARM %.f0TEs.
'd=p@a=p
7ocs INTEREST pLAS7Ee TRUCK GROWER
Thirty Years Experience In Berry Fruit
Gro wing.

} -
Thirty Years Experience In Berry Fruit
Gro wing.
| Thirty years old in any one line
of business is, quite patriarchlal,
for this has been 4 generation of
changes aid frequent adjustments and
readjustments. 1t has not fallen to-
the lot Of many men to hold to one
thing for so near the third part Of the
century. I consider myself fortunate
that fate has permitted me to bend
virtually ali the energies of my life
to one thing, given me time and op-
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 l in that
| have had sons to grow up around Inc,
profting by my experience, to see moro
broadly and reach higher, making my
plans and aims their plans and aims.
but larger. But am rot writing a
family history, but treatise on fruit
growing.
In that thirty years learned many
things and had to un1earn many things.
What I 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 i'll different proper.
tions, so did different plants and crops.
And l 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 tnat the dark
days are even yet entirely past with
all of us?
The three fertilizing properties which
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
tions OH different soils and for different
crops, and their blind and injuGicious
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 OF fertilizers. The loss is greater
in berry fruit growing than in any
other crop we have, because more fer
iilizer is used on this than is the Gus
tom Oh other crops and because the
loss in quantity and quality through
unwise manuring is so great in this
crop.
Ny largest crops of fruit have al
ways come from the most liberal use
of fertilizer when rightly proportioned.
My largest crops Of ilisappointments
have grown where 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 much
phosphoric acid rs it contains am
monia.
My plan in planting strawberries,
dewbcrries, blackberries, raspberr!es,
etc., is to apply cottonseed meal in the
drills before the plants are set 1T the
rate Of 600 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 in
any form until after the crop is gath
cred the following year.
I depend upon plenty Of potash and
phosphoric acid to make the fruit. Nor
have I ever failed in my whole eS-
perience to make 4 good crop except
one year when hail destroyed about
onc-half. I apply potash i'll the form
of suiphate Of potash: which is decid-
edly the best form for all kinds OF
fruit. using about 100 pounds per acre,
usually mixed with 800 pounds OF
acid phosphate or dissolved bone. This
mixture I SOW broadcast over the
plants during late fall and winter. 1t
will undoubtedly pay to use a some
what large quantity Of both OF these
fertilizers either broadcast before the
plants are set or else by chopplng IL:
a.vund and between the plants during
the summer or early fall. Potash and
pho.ohoric acid, as the! are much less
liable to be washed out ard lost than
ammonia is, can therefore be more lib
orally used without loss, as most of
the fertility Of this kind remains in the
soil until taken up by the plants.
I will add that the largest yield OF
strawberries which I ever heard OF
being made III this State was grown
by myself under the system of ferti-
izius above described.
O. ". BLACKNALL.
Kittrell, y. C..