594 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



two parts — one, a study of the general conditions of our orcharding, 

 the summary conchisions of which are presented in this paper; and 

 the other, a study of the exact behavior of individual trees, a subject 

 which was taken up by Professor Robei'ts and the summary of 

 which is given in Bulletin 103. These two bulletins complement 

 each other, therefore, and they represent the latest and best knowl- 

 edge which we have been able to apply to the perplexed subject of 

 orchard management, particularly to that part of the subject which 

 is associated with the declining productiveness in recent years. In 

 the preparation of the present bulletin, the writer has had before- 

 him the results of observations made in many hundred orchards in 

 western New York during two seasons ; and in Professor Roberts* 

 account there is published a more complete chemical history of fruit 

 trees than has ever before been made in this country, and his bul- 

 letin presents the strongest arguments yet advanced for the better 

 feeding and care of orchard trees. 



The two investigations have reached essentially the same conclu- 

 sions — that orchards need more thorough tilling and fertilizing than 

 they commonly receive. A most gratifying feature of the inquiries 

 is the fact that both have arrived independently, and from very dif- 

 ferent points of view, at exactly the same conclusion respecting the 

 causes of the singular circumstance that land which is cropped 

 with nursery trees is generally incapable of soon raising another 

 crop of such trees. This is not due to the depletion of the elements 

 of plant food in the soil, but to the modification of the texture of 

 the soil consequent upon methods of handling the crop and upon 

 the fact that both roots and tops of the plants are removed bodily^ 

 leaving practically no vegetable matter to enliven the land. A num- 

 ber of experiments are now in hand in nursery lands which may be 

 expected to throw additional light upon some of these problems. 

 These two bulletins are submitted to be published and distributed 

 under Chapter 230 of the Laws of 1895. 



L. H. BAILEY. 



