120 Bulletin 153. 



III. Thk Handling of the Plantation. 



The details of the handling of the fruit plantation are discussed 

 in many bulletins issued from this and other stations ; but there 

 are some general considerations — or ways of looking at certain 

 questions — which it may be profitable to discuss. 



Sod or tillage. — This an old question, this controversy whether 

 sod or tillage is better for an orchard. Plantations will be cited 

 to prove either case, which really prove them both. That is, for 

 the orchard which does better in sod, sod is the better. But it 

 cannot be that both are equally good ; and if not, then we should 

 discover which is fundamentally better, and the other will thereby 

 be the exception which proves the rule. Now, there -have been 

 bulletins and expositions enough to show that liberal tillage is 

 the better condition for the orchard ; and the man who cites his 

 plantation as an example of a contrar}^ fact, cites only an isolated 

 case and one which should be explained. He does not cite a 

 principle. It is desirable that horses be shod ; 3^et there are cir- 

 cumstances in which it is better that the}^ be barefoot. I shall 

 not repeat arguments for tillage, but give a few summary con- 

 clusions of observations. 



European large-area orchards are generally in sod ; and this 

 fact is perhaps one reason for the prevalence of sod orchards in 

 America, since European practice becomes known in this country 

 through books and foreign-born farmers. There are various rea- 

 sons for this condition which, it seems to me, will not apply here. 

 In the first place, the country is moist and there is less necessity 

 for conserving moisture than in America. The drier the coun- 

 try, the better is the tillage, other things being the same. Com- 

 pare the frequency of sod orchards in New England with their 

 infrequency in California. Again, the higher price of land and 

 the smaller farms, make it necessary to support two crops on the 

 same land, — trees and grass. In parts of Europe which are 

 primarily grazing or dair}- regions, the tree fruits are in realit}' 

 a secondary or catch crop, as, for example, in the cider-produc- 

 ing parts of Normandy. In other parts, cattle are kept indoors 

 most of the summer and are fed newl3^-cut grass ; this grass may 

 be gleaned in orchards. Still again, the large-field plantations 



