The Little River news., 1916-06-14
!. FERTILIZERS AND HORTiCUL-
 TURF


 cially true of the vegetable growers. What they wish is rapid growth in their produce, so that they will get the vegetables on the, -arket in the shortest possible time from the tihaaee. of planting. This Is the secret of success with vegetables, and the only way to meet such conditions Is to ap- ply fertilizers in large quantities. In the next paper we shall tell about the home garden" and how to fertilize 1t. In the present paper we are to tell more particularly about fruit
 The relation of apple growing ,o fertilizers has never been very care. fully worked out. We know that the use of fertilizers with fruit trees, and especially apples. pays, but we have not yet worked out the best formula for the various kinds of trees, nor the amounts which pay best. Brisbin says, in his book on Trees and Tree Planting" that in planting young trees large quantities of manure should be used in preparing the place for planting These manures should be rich in plant food clements if the trees are expected to make rapid growth. The best way to increase the plant food in manures is to add to the manures the mineral elements in various forms, and mix with leaf mold and manures. Brjsbin also rec. ommends that weeds should not be al. lowed to grow around the apple trees, as they will take up the plant food which is put down for young trees.
 The best method of producing fruit is to keep the field or orchard clean by growing other crops which require constant attention and culti. yatiOn. Most farmers and horticul. turists fertilize the crops that grow in the orchard, and in this way save the expense of fertilizing the fruit trees again. In many instances le- gumes are grown as cover crop, and, incidentally, to furnish nitrogen. The orchard cannot be cultivated too deeply, or injury will result. It needs to be cultivated shallow, and manures or fertilizers applied in reasonable quantities. While it is necessary to put fertilizers near the trunk of the tree, yet the roots scatter pretty we'll over an orchard, and the plant food that happens to fall further away from the trunk is not lost.
 large crop of apples or peaches takes from the soil much plant food, such as nitrogen, potash and phos- phoric acid. and unless this is SUD- piled from time to time, the trees will prove less fruitful and finally bear very little fruit and what they do bear will be of poor quality. The ar gument that old trees in pastures bear good fruit is not sound, be. cause conditions prevail in many iso. lated places this way that cannot be duplicated in the orchard. Many times it Is the natural leaf mold, woods earth. droppings from animals, and other materials carrying available plant food that make the fruit on such trees. Besides, such fruit is rarely ever as excellent and delicious as that grown in a well-kept orchard. Fruit, like all other kinds of field and garden crops, must be forced more or less to measure up to high stan- dard. To force the fruit, and at the same time keep the land fertile, we must apply to the soil as much fertll- izer as the crop takes from it.
 Fruit trees demand in their growth a fertilizer rather rich in potash and phosphoric acid, but not very rich in nitrogen. It was found that the citrus trees in California at the Riverside Experiment Station grew better fruit and did better every way with a com plete fertilizer than with any single plant food element, or any incomplete combination. It was also found that the acid requirements of these trees were more completely supplied with sulphate of ammonia than from any other nitrogen source.
 Many of the experiment stations have secured good results from fertil. izing orchards, but none quite so good as the Ohio station. F. H. Ballou, in charge of work with apples, says:
 '"To sum up the results in increased fruit production from the use of chemical fertilizers on the very thin orchard land in southeastern Ohio. taking into consideration all our diff. ferent plots at the various places GOV. ering 60 miles of country, we have the following:
 Average per acre, per year fertiL ized, 100 barrels.
 Average per acre, per year unfertil ized, A barrels.
 Gain per acre, per year, from fertil- ization, 56 barrels.
 Cost of gain per barrel, per yea. IFS cents.
 This is the strongest endorsement for the use of commercial fertilizers in orchards that we have yet seen. and shows how it is possible to ia- crease the incomes from an orchard by the wise use of the proper kinds of fertilizers. Prof. Maurice A. Blake of the New Jersey Experiment Station