The Farm

At the twenty-fourth annual meeting of the New York Horticultural Society, Prof. G. C. Caldwell of Cornell University read a long and carefullyprepared paper on "Experimentation with Manures in Fruit Culture." The experimenta are to be made by different mernbers of the society during the coming season and reported upon by the committee on chemistry at the next annual meeting. The paper is largely taken up with details as to the manner in which the experiments are to be .viado. the objects sought to be attained by theni, etc, the whole forming one of the most important enterprises yet undertaken by fruit-growers in this country. We give a few paragraphs f rom Prof. Caldwell's paper which are of general interest : EXHAUSTION OF SOILS. The subject of the exhaustion of soils by fruit culture and the best means of preventing it by the use of manures is one of great importance, especially in the older parts of the country, where the soil has been under cultivation for a long seiies of years and has lost much of its native richness, and must be manured liberally in order to keep it up to its highest limit of productiveness. It opens up a new and almost unexplored field for experimentation and research, both in the orchard and garden, as well as in the labovatory, but one in which a large amount of patience will be required for the production of valuable and safe results. None of our common fruits have been analyzed repeatedly, and some have not been analyzed at all. We have no means of estimating the draft made on the soil for the annual production of the wood of the new growth of our fruit trees and shrubs. Hence.we are almost entirely unable to determine what must be put on the soil to replace what is carried off in each year's growth of wood and crops of fruit. We may learn, however, from the few data that we already have, that at least, so far as the fruit is concerned, somewhat the same quantities of the most important elements of plant food are removed in an ordinary fruit erop as in other common agricultural crops. ELEMENTS OF THE APPLE. The composition of the ash of the Apple is given by Wolft5 as follows, in 100 parts : Potash 36.58 8oda 26.Ü9 Lime 4.08 Magnesia 8.75 Iron 1.40 Phosphoiic Acid 1S.59 Snlphuric Acid 6.09 Silica 4.32 The frt sb fruit eontains about 0.21 er cent. of aah, whose composition is ;iven above, and about 0.038 per cent. of nitrogen. If we allew that a barrel oí apples weighs 150 pounds, and six jarréis to a tree, and seventy-two trees to the acre, we shall have for the weight of the average erop of an acre 64,800 pounds of fruit. This would coitain very nearly fifty-one-pounds of ■otdsh, thirty-seven of soda, six of iwe, twenty of phosphoric acid and vwenty-five of nitrogen. COMPARED WITII CEREALS. "For comparison, we give below the quantities of potash and phosphoric acid taken from the soil. and of nitrogen in some of the more common crops: Podnds. Wheat, 25 buahels 22 18 39 Indian Corn, 50 buBhels 70 51 77 Potatoes, 150 bnahels ol 20 31 Clover, two cutB 67 25 104 Timothy 46 14 47 Both straw and grain are included in case of the wheat and corn, but in that of the potatoes only the tubers. THE PEAR. The ash of the pear is much richer in potash and poorer in soda than that of the apple, the percentages being 54.C9 índ 8.5, respectively. These very imcortan t differences, if confirmed by uture analysis, may give us some hints or experiments with manures in the cultivation of apples and pears. Of the leaves of our common fruits, there are no analyses ; but as they are rarely removed from the field, exeept it be to take them to the barn for bedding, whence all their mineral matters are carried back to the field in the manure, they in reality make no permanent draft on the resources of the soil. . STABLE MANURE. All these mineral matters in the fruit sold must be replaced in some way, either by the use of manure, home-made or purchased, or by cultivation of deep-rooted crops, to be used as fodder, that will bring up the mineral matters f rom greater depths in the soil. Stable manure has hitherto been and is even now the material most commonly used to make good this loss of mineral matter, as well as to supply that most important constituent of the f ood of all plants, nitrogen ; but it is becoming more and more difflcult every year in some localities to flnd enough of this kind of manure to meet all the demands for it ; and fruit-growers and gardeners as well as farmers are in sore need of something else with which to f eed their crops. COMMEKCIAL FERTILIZERS. That we have in commercial or concentrated manures a means of furnishing this needed supply, is clearly shown by their extensive use in all branches of high f arming ; and we have, moreover, good and sufficient evidence tliat they can, if need be, be used entirely by themselves, and without the co-operation of stable manure. How shall we proceed to find the best way to supplement our insufficient supplies of stable manure with these concentrated manures ? Can we apply them with proflt directly to our fruits, or must we use them on forage crops, and tima increase the quantity of stable manure? Much will undoubtedly be gained for horticulture if it can be proved that sure returns can be obtained from the direct application of the fertilizers in the fruit gardens and orchards, without the intervention of the domestic animáis. Uut this can be established only by experimenting in those same gardens and orchards. THE QUESTION STATED. I think that a serioas mistake is usually made in the matter of experimenting with commercial fertilizers. The question to be answered by the experiment is this: - "Will a certain quantity of plant food, consisting of nitrogen or phosphoric acid or potash, in a certain condition as to solubility, or a cerlain mixture of two or all three of those elements of plant food also in a certain condition as to solubility, yield a profltable return when put on a certain field with a certain erop?" WIIAT THE COMMITTEE PROPOSE. The committe will prepare a series of questions in regard to this matter, to which it is hoped that a large number of members will be ready to respond. With the sets of questions will be sent out directions for taking samples of the fertilizers for analysis and sending them to the chairman of the committee at Cornell University, who places at the disposal of the society the facilities of the laboratory of that institution, for the purpose of the execution of this plan of co-operative experimentation. All members of the society who are willing to join in this work, and make and report the desired Information, whether with regard to stable manure alone, or stable manure and concentrated fertilizers, or concentrated fertilizers alone, are requested to send their address, to the chairman of the committee, Professor G. C. Caldwell, Ithica, N. Y., and to specif y which of the three classes of observations specified above, they are willing to undertake, and how many kinds of concentrated fertilizers they wish to try.