The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1918-03-07
Use OF NITRATE
URGED By BROWN
B. Gordon c. Brown

having their FIRST ttknaTlnual with
this fertilizer il il deemed 4vpa.I-
lent 10 issue a Statement at This
time. of such nature ss uiu 4uabla
The grower ta indes for ht,5self
whether he needs sucb fertilizer ana
such other details as ma. ba M
of mention.
Although the widespread need f1r
nitrate OF soda is not So clearly in
dicated in our orchards as v.to,e
as in previous wears there arc
MANY orchards where ii cam be used
with profit in spite of present high
prices chareed Indeed IL seems
that there is strong possibility
that it may be needed in rhe older
orchards where shade crops are IN
use. as well as ON soils depleted 5f
organic matter bv clean tillage.
The question hss bccu raised VIM.
ther such artificial fertilization +,
Necessary where trees have been in
alfalfa for number of wears This
cannot be answered by either YES a.,
no. 1t depends upon nSriser OF
factors which mus. be studied col
lectively rather than iudenendenti,.
as many growers are Inclined 80 do
This is where extreme difficulty is
encountered IN maKing specific re-
Communications Unless Ou hard
practice is corrected -ihe chances
are that one operation instead OF
aidmg another in accomplishing II
specific purpose may be actually OF
setting other Operations
When the grower applies nitrate
he shou'L try to keep in mind the
whole calendar OF orchard opera
tions and their specific Influences.
He should ask himself what he de.
sires in the finished prelact cor
tamly he will want good sized fruit.
The present market adicates otn,
need foo this in no uncertain tones.
Large sized Spitzcnbergs sen TO ad.
vantage over small ones dispute ,n,
handicap othcv may have i'm color.
Then again the grover wants all
the fruit he can get iadicstione are
/ that this is to be a lae,per wear
4 fror the standpoint of total yissts
percentage of fruit buds. However
tie grower must recornjze that in
order to realize upua his hopes in
this direction he must yet N hieh
pcreentaac of his blossoms TO set
fruit Qld retain same until fnlI ma.
turity has been reached The grow.
er should again keen in mind yarie.
4ty characteristics Are vou inter.
ested mainly in high degree of colop
or are yuu willing 10 sacrifice ia
/ some extent in tbis In Dpder to get
larger Yields OF biz sized fruit? This
is not to suggast that large fruit and
poor color necessarily 90 hand in
hand but within certain limits this
is often So
Where the trees are lacksrg in
vigor due to run down soil condi
tions there is no fertilizer which
has proved more effective than nit
race of soda. The results are al
most imre9iate. II appIied early in
the season tduring March, prefer
ably early March, the influence on
the set of blossoms is striking. This
l. highly important iAst wear n
much larger crop in the valley woul.
lave kpon realized if reasonable
number of the blossoms could have
been made to carry their fruits. Il
full maturity. In many orchards
with heavy bloom the average sci
was between Is to 20 per cent only
II is not urged that nitrate of soda
would have corrected this tendenc,
in all cases. Booh Nowtowns anf
Spitzenbergs are more or less silver
to alternate bearing naturally. How
ever in cases of low vitality nitrate
would have done areat deal ot
xood.
From an eudf,onS stah,,noint z
word regarding the Desirable amount
to apply may prove of interest. Ger
tninly f.3.
iertlllzY sustlfy Its use sparingly