or pulverized, limestone is the safest type of lime to apply to
trees or crops, in my estimation. Some of it is ground so fine that it
looks like hydrated lime and is used for medicinal purposes. I am
inclined to think that any reports you received that noted injury from
the use of lime may have been due to the use of burned lime (calcium
oxide) which is caustic when wet. This type of lime may be used in
winter, but during the growing season, or too close to the growing
season, may injure trees. I believe such injury depends entirely upon
weather conditions, but it is a good thing to be on the safe side and
use a lime which will not have the hot reaction that burned lime has.

"Your reports will serve an excellent purpose if they lead to getting a
yearly record by planters on bearing and tree growth of their varieties.
Few people know enough to go into the matter of soils and treatments
intelligently. One can hardly blame them. It is a baffling subject. An
unbalance in one element will lock up another element until one has
quite a time unlocking them again. It seems that a conservative middle
course is about the best to advise."

Upon reflection, it seems likely that if our questionnaire had asked
specifically about the use of lime, many more reports would have been
received of its use.

In response to an inquiry as to how weed competition near young trees is
controlled, the replies are encouraging. Forty-seven practiced mulching;
forty-five, mowing; thirty-four, occasional cultivation; twenty, regular
cultivation, and a few others, slag or cinders around the trees. As is
evident, some used several of the above methods. A few used none and
suffered losses. Their honesty is admired, and their experience,
disappointing as it is, is useful information.

As to fertilizing, forty-three reported the use of manure in some form
as the principal material; twenty-eight used nitrogenous fertilizer;
twenty-one, a complete fertilizer. Other materials were, in order, lime,
compost, bone meal, ammonium sulphate, wood ash, tankage. One used a
mixture of muck and manure and got results in excellent growth where the
use of muck alone produced unsatisfactory growth. Several reported
injury from too much fertilizer or from too late an application. Tree
growth was thus pushed on into late fall; the trees were too sappy to
stand the winter freezes and suffered from winter killing. The same
result was reported from "over-cultivation." In