The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-05
AGRICULTURE.
COMMERCIAL APPLE GROWING.
Potash.
Continued from last week.)


 Continued from last week) The office of potash in agriculture is first, to assist the nitrogen in building the framework of the tree; second, to furnish woody fibre. starch. sugar and the rich pulp; third, to give to the fruit a fine color.
 l The cheapest forms of potash are muriate of potash and wood ashes. Mu- riate of potash is by far the most impor- tant source of potash. It is found in large deposits near Strassfort, Germany, in what is called Carnallite. which con- 1 tains 15 per cent of muriate of potash. Wood ashes, if unleached contain from 3 to per cent of potash and from 1 to 2ka per cent of phosphoric acid.
 One trouble in using wood ashes for | potash is that the per cent of potash is | so small that if we were to use enough 1 of it to produce the desired results we | might make our soils too light, porus or | leechy. This would be true in light, sandy soi1s but on soils with a stiff, heavy clay subsoil, large quantities of wood ashes may be safely used. Liberal quantities | of potash are needed and should be used in fruit growing. and especially so for all | fruit trees.
 1 Many soils. especially the heavy, red | clay soils, contain more or less potash provided by nature.
 1 Potash, like nitrogen is violate and should be used at such a stage of the | growth in plants as will give best re- suits and prevent loss. This would be 1 true, especially where commercial or muriate of potash is used Wood ashes would be slower in their action than the muriate of potash
 Phosphoric Acid,
 The office of phosphoric acid in hortieul- | ture is to aid the assimilation of the other plant foods It also helps to hasten the maturity of the fruit and produces and 1 perfects the seed in all fruits.
 | There are two principal sources of phos- phoric acid, namely, bone and rock phos- phates Of these, the rock phosphate is
 the cheapest source. A prevailing inn precision exists that super-phosphate.
 made from rock phosphate, is not as good
 a that made from bones. It has been shown by many experiments that this idea is entirely without foundation What the plants want is soluble phosphoric acid, and it makes little or no difference from what source 1t Is derived.
 The largest deposits of rock phosphates are found in South Carolina, Florida and | Tennessee. Rock and bone phosphates are not so volatile as nitrogen and potash, so | may be applied to the soil without fear of loss. This applies particularly to un- | treated rock and raw bone phosphates. 1 However, when rock phosphates are | treated with phosphurc acid, they become l quickly available and this is also true of the bone phosphates
 Steamed bone meal is now being largely | used and it, too is quickly available; or we may state it this way, that when these phosphates are so treated the acid phos- phate becomes soluble in water One of the best plans for using phos- 1 plates where the soil is in a good physi- | cal condition would be to use from four to eight hundred pounds per acre of what l is called floats and which is the phos- 1 phate rock ground as it comes from :he | beds. These floats gradually dsente- grate, becoming available, as needed.
 Ground raw bones may be used the | same way but where the soil has been robbed of all plant foods and immediate action is needed 1t will be best to use the steamed bone meal or the rock phos- | phate that has been treated with sul- | phoric acid.
 Barnyard and Stable Manures. l Stable manure contains all three of the elements of plant foods mentioned above, but it is in small quantities and often it | is impossible to procure enough of this natural fertilizer to produce the results desired. However the fact still remains | that if we could get enough of this barn. yard manure and use 1t in connection with our legumes in well regulated TO- 1 tation of crops. this system of fertilizing our soils would furnish us all the plant foods needed for all our crops.
 Lime.
 While lime has never been considered a direct fertilizer, yet it has a fine mechan- ica1 effect upon the soil and often liber- ates or sets to action the plant foods that are dormant in the soil. Lime has direct influence on soils binding loose, 1 leechy soils and making tight heavy soils | loose Lime also has a direct influence | in correcting the acidity of the soil. | All bearing apple orchards should have at least one ton of air-slacked lime per acre scattered broadcast every three years. There are many soils that are so | sour that they will never produce fine apples until they are corrected of this acidity, which can best be done by the combined use of tile drainage and lime. While l am not able to give formula here that would suit all conditions, yet the various formulas given will meet the | reouirements of most soils for apple | growing or other fruits as well. Compost.
 | Stable and barnyard manure and other ! decaying vegetable matter contains am | monia though only In small quantities i Decaying vegetable matter produces hu- mus in the soil and should be kept from exposure 10 the weather ana In the early | spring put on the soil and worked in I To make a compost, spread out the I manure and cover it with acid phosphate, | then put layer Of manure and another | of acid phosphate. aad So on until all the manure is used. A little kainit added | in each layer of acid phosphate will sup ply potash. The acid phosphate not only aids in the decomposition of the manure. | but tends to hold the ammonia. thus | preventing it's escape. In cartlng the com- l post, cut through the pile. thus mixing | the layers for distribution on the land.
 In the preparation of soils for trees use from twenty to thirty tons of stable