The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1907-09-28
EASTERN APPLE
CROP ESTIMATES
Only 80 Per Cent. Of An Average Crop
In New fngIand.
hastern Apples of An Inferior Quail
1ty This Year-How Apple Crow
Ing Exhausts the soil-Necess1ty of
Supplying Trees With Fertilizers.

Ae A1NheAucSS GhC CSO1l-NeCeSSlLy
Supplying Trees With Fertilizers.
LIN eastern farm paper states
- that the early estimates of the
apple crop have been found to be far
in excess of the production, and for
many sections CT the country will need
to be reduced one half or more. The
estimate for New England, for in
stance, which was at first placed at
80 per cent. of an average crop and
later reduced to so per cent. will
probably be reduced to 80 per cent.
Outside of New England the crop is
still more uneven, some apple grow
ing states having no crop and in 9th
ers crop is to be found only in GER
tain sections. 1t is probably the
lightest apple crop that has been pro-
duced in the United States for years,
and of inferior quality at that. In
the east unfavorable weather condi-
tions retarded the growth of those
that survived the blight Of early sum-
mer, and the fruit is reported small
and imperfect. The same paper says
that "the prices for ordinary fruit
will this year be far above those OBJ
tanned generally for the best, for
there are certain uses to which ap-
pies can be put that cannot be sup
piled IN any other way. This will be
a year when everything in the shape
of an apple will be in demand and
fruit that in ordinary years would be
left to decay upon the ground will be
sent to Market"
lin considering the reasons why
apple and other fruit trees do not
bear as many or as fine apples as
they did III the early days. writes
Prof. H. Garman, Of the Kentucky
experiment station, ''I have been i'm
pressed with the Importance OF sup
plying the trees with fertilizers as
the soil becomes exhausted, and am
satisfied that the greater relative diff
ficulty experienced nowadays in keep
ing fruit trees in good condition is in
part due to an exhaustion of the soil.
'Trees forage more widely than
smaller plants and may rot show the
effects of starvation as suddenly or as
soon, but they must show it in time if
grown long on the same land without
anything being returned to the soil to
replace materials removed by the
trees. In this relation I was struck
recently by statement which
I encountered in Professor Voorhees,
interesting little book on fertilizers.
'sHe says that twenty crops of ap-
Piles of fifteen bushels per tree, and
thirty-five trees to the acre, equal
1887 lbs. of nitrogen, 80 lbs. Of phos-
phoric acid and 1905 lbs. of potash.
Twenty crops of wheat of Is bushels
per ace equal $50 lbs. Of nitrogen,
211 lbs. Of phosphoric acid and 324
lbs. Of potash.
Therefore, according to Professor
Voorhees,, twenty crops of apples re-
move more than twice as much nitoo-
gen, half as much again phosphoric
acid and nearly three times as much
potash as twenty crops Of wheat. A
good farmer would hardly think of
growing twenty successive crops of
wheat on the same land, no matter
how good it might be, and it would
seem to be still greater folly, accord
ing to the figures given, to attempt
to grow twenty successive crops of
apples without returning anything to
the soil"