CHE REFERENCE LIBRARY - Pole Shift Survival Information

176 THE NURSERY-M-ANUAL
l~usba&~~, the following statement will be useful : ‘I’he amount
of green i:orn necessary to remove an equal amount of fertilizing
ingredients per acre, takiug the average of the value of the
nitroger), phosphoric acid and potash ($1.72) removed by an
acre of the trees (3 years’ growth), would be 4,779 pounds.
“ Sil;Ige corn raised in drilis usually yields from 12 to 20 tons
per acre, and yet rlr~s not make drafts on the land which preclude
duplicating t.he yield the following season ; hence some
other pause than soil exhaustion must, he found if the failure
to grow a second crop of nursery trees without intermediate
crops is explained.” These conclusions are supported in analyses
made lj~y the ,Xew York State Station (Geneva).
All experience proves that a crop of nursery trees does not
eshaust the land of its fertility. In fact, it is generally considered
that land front which trees have just been removed is
in good condition and heart for a crop of beans, wheat or
potatoes. Yet, despite this fact, it is also generally considered
that land can seldom raise two good crops of nursery trees in
succession. Land that has been “ treed ” must be I‘ rested ”
in grass or some other crop. This disposition of land to refuse
to gro:v two consecutive crops of good trees is not Ann invariable
ruie, however. ASursery lands have produced good plum trees
for twenty consecutive years. One frequently sees lands
yielding apple and cherry stocks for two or three crops in succession.
Plums seem to be particularly amenable to this
consecutive cropping, and they are benefited by applications
of stable manure. Some other species, as, for example, the
pear, do not take so kindly to trea’tment with manure. Because
of this common experience with iudifl’erent trees grown
on treed land, nurserymen with a large business prefer to rent
land for th e growing of trees.
The chief reason for this condition of treed lands seems to
be t,hat the soil is injured in i.ts physical texture and robbed
of its humus by the methods of cultivation and treatment.