The Apple-Tree: The Open Country Books—No. 1Bailey, L. H. (Liberty Hyde)
Science
The Apple-Tree: The Open Country Books—No. 1
Bailey, L. H. (Liberty Hyde)
Apples
To maintain the health and energy of the apple-tree, the land should
be enriched. This may be accomplished by the application of animal
manures, chemical fertilizers, or cover-crops, or preferably by a
combination of these means. Not many persons possess sufficient farm
manures to supply the general crops and the apple-orchard; but every
application the orchard receives is all to the good. Five to ten tons
of good stable manure to the acre annually is a good addition for an
orchard in bearing. This may be supplemented by cover-crops and bag
fertilizers in years in which the manure is not available. Experiments
are yet inconclusive on the fertilizing of apple-trees, but it is fair
to assume that on most lands, particularly on old lands, the addition
of chemical fertilizer is advantageous. A bearing apple-tree may
receive two to eight pounds of nitrate of soda (depending on its size
and on soil) applied to the full feeding area of the roots, five to
nine pounds of acid phosphate, two or three pounds of muriate of
potash; always ask advice.
The pasturing of orchards is often defensible and sometimes even
desirable. If the trees are growing too rapidly, they may be "slowed
down" by seeding to grass for a time; and pasturing with hogs, and
possibly with sheep, may afford a way of keeping the area in condition
and of adding fertilizer. Sheep that do not have access to
drinking-water and salt gnaw the trees. Hogs root up the ground and
thereby provide a rude kind of tillage. If animals are fed other food
in the orchard, the fertilizer increment will be considerable.
In house-lot conditions, the apple-tree usually receives sufficient
food if the land is well enriched for garden purposes; but trees in
sod should have liberal top-dressings of fertilizer every year and of
stable manure every other year.
The apple-tree should have a good supply of moisture. Planted on banks
and in hard places about buildings, it may suffer in this respect. The
land should be so graded that the rainfall will not run off. In
orchard conditions, the moisture is conserved by the addition of humus
to the land, and by thorough judicious tillage; and in dry regions it
is supplied by irrigation.
The energy of the apple-tree, and its ability to produce, is conserved
by holding all diseases and noxious insects in check. The means at the
command of the apple-grower are now many. No longer is the man
helpless, nor does he need to appeal to the moon or to "atmospheric
influences" for reasons. The natural histories of fungi and insects,
that do so much damage, are now a part of common understandable
knowledge. To acquire at least a working understanding of the
commonest of these subjects is in itself a great satisfaction and
gives one a sense of dominion. The good books and bulletins are
sufficient to keep one well informed. All these organisms are tenants
of the apple-tree, and from the naturist's point of view alone they
are not to be overlooked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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