Bones for Grape Vines.

I am going to plant out some grape vines, and would like to know if it is a good plan to put old bones, broken up fine, into the holes when planting.

Yes, if you do not use too much and it is mixed with earth, a little beyond the touch of the roots at planting.  You do not need to finely break the bones.  The roots will take care of that.  But do not put in too much coarse stuff, for fear of causing too rapid drainage.

Reviving Blighted Trees.

I have a couple of apple trees here that were hurt by the pear blight three years ago and were cut back since then; they come out each year, but the leaves curl up, and they do not do anything.  I would like to know if putting any fertilizer around them would help them to put out their leaves, and if so what I should use?

Put some stable manure on the top of the soil around your trees now so that the rains may reach the contents of the soil, then later in the season dig the manure into the soil.  Apply water during the summer time and this will encourage the trees to grow, if there is any vigor remaining in them.  This treatment, however, will not protect them from the blight.

Fertilizing Pear Orchard.

I have pear trees 15 years old which have fruited heavily for years and have never been fertilized.  What is the best fertilizer for the soil which is heavy, and when is the best time to apply it?  I intend planting rye to plow under in the spring, but thought possibly the fertilizer should be applied first.

If you have stable manure available, nothing could be better for the feeding of the trees and for its mellowing effect upon your heavy soil.  Application can be made at once, to be worked into the land when the rye is sown.  It will help the trees and give you more rye which in the end will help the trees.  If you have no stable manure available, what is called by the dealers a “complete fertilizer” for orchard purposes is what you should use and apply it when you work the land for rye.

Fertilizing Olives.

What is the best means of fertilizing an olive orchard?  My orchard gives me a perfect quality of oil, but a poor quantity.  My soil is dry calcareous, red and gray, and is very thin in places, therefore, it lacks moisture.

An olive orchard can be fertilized with stable manure or with a “complete fertilizer,” or with the special brands of different manufacturers of special fruit fertilizers.  But you must be sure that your trees do not need moisture more than they need fertilizers, for without adequate moisture fertilizers cannot do their best work.  The increase of the humus content of the soil, either secured by stable manure or by the plowing under of winter-grown cover crops, is desirable, as they not only give the trees more plant food, but make the soil also more retentive of moisture.  You will have to experiment along this line to see just what is best for your trees.