SOIL AND MANURE FOR FRUIT TREES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1671, 5 March 1890, Page 3

SOIL AND MANURE FOR FRUIT TREES.

It is well-known that all varieties of fruit do not flourish and mature equally in all sections of the country. This is mainly attributed to climate, but in many instances such judgment is erroneous. Soil will be found to have more influence upon our plants and trees than climate. The latter has everything to do in hastening or retarding the maturity of plants ; but the former influences the life and success of trees by supplying or denying them the proper food. The value of special manures is thus manifested. Lime and its phosphate^ form a com* ponent part of all special manures for fruit trees, and many, old worn-out soils have been renewed by judicious application of lime, ashefe, &c- In nine cases out of ten, wherfj, a variety of fruit which once flourished in a given soil has ceased to flourah ani perfect fine fruit there, the change is due to the fact that the soil has become destitute of the necessary, mineral manures. In nearly all such cases the plentiful application of {rood ashes and lime will restore the healthy condition of the trees. Observations of the effect of the compositions of; soil convince many that much of what was attributed to climate was simply owing to the want of the necessary inorganic or mineral manures in the soil. The special lesson which this should teach us is that in getting trees, plants and shrubs from another section of the country, they should always be accompanied by an analysis of the soil in which the particular varieties reached perfection. We could then see that the trees were planted in the same kind of soil, and success assured.