Your experience seems to justify the application of potash, surely, but
the question still remains, how much good the potash did the trees, and
how much they needed the extra water which the waste dips supplied. It
would be desirable for you to make another experiment with other trees,
applying wood ashes, if you have them, or about four pounds per tree of
the potash which you use for dipping, scattering well and working it
into the soil after it is moistened by the rains, and not using any more
water than the trees ordinarily received from rainfall. After this trial
you will be in a position to know whether your trees need potash or
irrigation - by comparing with other trees adjacent. Besides are you
sure that your lye dip was caustic potash and not caustic soda? The
latter has no fertilizing value.
Prunings as Fertilizer.
Is orchard and vineyard brush worth enough as a fertilizer to pay for
cutting or breaking and putting back on the land?
We should say not. It takes too much labor to put it in any form to
promote decay, and is even then too indestructible. It is also possible
that its decay may induce root rot of trees. We should burn the stuff
and spread the ashes. Vineyard prunings are more promising because more
easily and quickly reduced by decay. Vinecane-hashers have been proposed
from time to time, but we do not know anyone who long used them.
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