606 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



look at^Fig. 143. This tree is the same age as the others, but has 

 always stood in sod. The roots ran 10 feet in one direction and 

 the total spread of the top was 6 feet, but the roots lie just under- 

 neath the surface. This land could not be plowed without great 

 injury to the tree. Let us consider the relation of this tree to 

 moisture ; the roots are in the driest part of the soil ; the grass is 

 pumping out the water and locking it up in its own tissues, and 

 sending it into the atmosphere with great rapidity ; the soil is 

 baked and pulls up the water by capillary attraction and dis- 

 charges it into the air ; there is no tillage to stop this waste by 

 spreading a mulch of loose and dry soil orer the earth. If one 

 were to, sink a well under this tree and were to erect a windmill 

 and pump he could not so completely deprive the tree of moisture ! 

 And the less moisture the less food ! 



d. Cultivate in such manner that the land will he in nniform^ 

 Jme tilth. — Every good farmer knows that the value of his crop 

 depends more upon the tilth of the soil than upon the richness of it. 

 Fertility is largely locked up in poorly tilled lands. Orchards 

 which are plowed late in spring are usually in bad condition all the 

 season, especially if the soil is clay. Fall plowing upon stifi and 

 bare lands is apt to result in the puddling of the soil by the rain and 

 sno^ ; if there is sod on the land this injury is less likely to follow. 

 In general it is best to let orchard lands pass the winter under a 

 catch crop. 



4. Lack of available plant food is unquestionahly the cause of 

 much of the failure of orchards. — This fact is strongly emphasized 

 in Bulletin 103, which shows that apple trees on a single acre may 

 use, in the course of the twenty most productive years, over $400 

 worth of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus ; and if the owner 

 wants large crops, the trees must have a still larger amount of food. 

 The soil itself is a great storehouse of plant food, and this treasure 

 is unlocked by the judicious tillage which I have recommended, but 

 plant food must be added also to the soil if the best results are desired. 

 It should be said, however, that no amount of fertilizer can atone 

 for neglect of cultivation, for unless the soil is in congenial mechani- 

 cal condition the plant is incapable of utilizing the food whicTi may 

 be applied. The better the tillage, the greater the benefit which 

 comes from the use of fertilizers. 



There is much yet to be learned respecting the fertilizing of 

 orchard lands. In general, nitrogen can be supplied in sufficient 



