There is not only no standard for fertilizing orange trees, but there is no “ideal” which might be considered as a basis for a standard.  All growers who are awake to the necessity of doing something for bearing trees, try all things and hold fast to what (they think) is good.  Practically none of them has any enduring conviction or demonstration as to what is good, but they keep on trying.  There is, however, one clear and enduring conviction, and that is, that continuous fertilizing must be done for profit, and our best growers are using the same materials you mention in considerably larger amounts than you apply, and use also other forms of nitrogenous fertilizers.  The amounts of superphosphate and nitrate which you use would be considered homeopathic treatment by our growers.

Cow Stable Drainage for Fruit.

I have been told that the drainings from a cow barn make an excellent fertilizer for orange and lemon trees, in fact, anywhere on plants where manure is considered beneficial.

The drainage from a cow barn is excellent for fertilizing almost any crop unless it is used in too large quantity.  If it should be combined with a considerable amount of water used for cleaning out the stable, it would be excellent for the irrigation of all kinds of fruit trees.  Care should be taken, however, not to oversaturate the ground, which would be the case if the washing of the stable was allowed to run continuously alongside a single row of trees.  The water should be changed from row to row in succession, cultivating the ground meantime to promote aeration and to prevent too great compacting of the soil.

Seed Farm Refuse as a Fertilizer.

Would cleanings from sweet peas or all kinds of seeds grown on a seed farm be of any value as a fertilizer on sandy loam soil for an orchard?  This has been in a pile for three years or more, and I can get it for the hauling.  There are a hundred loads or more of it and not very far to haul.

It would be worth more on a heavy soil, because the danger of drying out would be less and the surety of reduction to humus greater.  To get the highest value from such stuff it should be composted with water and turning in heaps, but that would occasion expense beyond value probably, unless it could be composted with manure for market garden purposes.  The hauling might be good work for idle teams.  Spread the stuff rather thinly to be covered in with fall plowing, so that its decay could be promoted during the rainy season.

Slow Stuff as a Fertilizer.

How can we use sawdust and shavings from our high school shop so as to combine it with street sweepings, lawn cuttings, etc., and insure ready decay without objectionable features?