I have a small family orchard of half an acre, fenced in as a chicken yard, the soil of which has become very foul.  When would be the best time to apply lime and how much?

Put on 500 pounds of lime and plow under as soon as you can — that is, spread the lime just before the plowing, with a shower or two on the lime before plowing, if the weather runs that way.

Poultry Manure.

Give directions for using chicken manure.  For use of young trees, is there any difference in treatment of deciduous and citrus trees?  For use in the vegetable garden and the flower garden, what should be mixed with it and in what proportions?  So many people say poultry manure is so strong, I am afraid to use it.

It is a fact that poultry manure, free from earth, contains even as high as four times as much plant food as ordinary stable manure.  It is, therefore, to be used with proportional care, so that the plants shall not receive too much, and particularly so that there may not be too much collected in one place.  Probably the best way to guard against this is to thoroughly mix the manure with three or four times its bulk of ordinary garden soil and then use this mixture at about the same rate you would stable manure.  If you do not desire to go to all this trouble, make an even scattering of the manure and work it into the soil.  There is no reason to fear the material; simply guard against the unwise use of it.  It is good for all the plants which you mention; in fact, for any plant grown, provided it is sparingly and evenly distributed.

It should be pulverized so that there shall not be lumps and masses in the same place for fear of root injury.  Of course, the strength depends upon how much earth is gathered up with the manure.  Sometimes there is so much waste material that it can be handled just as ordinary farm manure is.

We should not use over 20 pounds of clean droppings to a young tree and should mix it with the soil for a considerable distance around the tree.  Old bearing trees might stand two or three tons to the acre if distributed all over the ground.  The material contains everything that is necessary for the growth of the tree and formation of the fruit.

Ashes and Poultry Manure.

It is said that ashes mixed with chicken manure is not good.  I use ashes altogether on the drop boards because I can keep the boards cleaner.  The refuse is then scattered around the fruit trees.

Wood ashes and lime should never be used as you propose, because they set free the nitrogen compounds which are the most valuable content of poultry manures.  This action is conditioned largely upon the presence of moisture, and if the droppings are kept dry and hurried into the soil the loss is lessened.  Coal ashes, on the other hand, are a thoroughly good absorbent when the coal burns to a fine ash or is sifted.  They do not act as wood ashes do, because they do not contain soluble alkali.  They also have a good mellowing effect on heavy soil.