128 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



Prof. Stewart : In that case you may have to lighten the 

 mulch, or possibly eliminate it entirely. 



Ques. I would like to ask if this experiment has been run- 

 ning long enough so that you know the effect on the fruit ? 



Prof. Stewart: No; this is only the first five years of the 

 growth. We now have six years' results, but we have not the 

 sixth year tabulated yet. 



Ques. I understand that you are using alfalfa as a permanent 

 cover crop, using the same crop year after year? 



Prof. Stewart : Yes ; it is a permanent cover. 



Ques. That gives you a heavy mulch? 



Prof. Stewart : Yes ; we have plenty of mulch. But as the 

 trees grow larger of course this mulch increases in size and the 

 mulch producing area decreases, and there will come a time 

 when it will hardly maintain a satisfactory mulch, and I don't 

 know what is going to happen when these trees reach the bear- 

 ing stage. If you cannot grow alfalfa you will have to grow 

 some other crop as a permanent cover and use the same prin- 

 ciple. You don't have to use the same plant. Alfalfa is a detail. 

 Vetch is second with us. The first cover crop is alfalfa. The 

 vetch, however, is an annual cover; it is the best of them, and 

 I am just now trying vetch and red clover and white clover 

 combined, as an experimental permanent cover, using that triple 

 combination in the same way that I am using the alfalfa below. 

 It is my opinion that the development of the proper plants and 

 the proper handling of permanent covers in an orchard right 

 now is of much more importance than the consideration of an- 

 nual covers and annual tillage. In other words, if I could say 

 at the present minute what is the best combination for a per- 

 manent cover in an orchard to be used as the source of a mulch 

 to place around the trees, why I would be very well satisfied. 

 We are working now on the permanent covers. This alfalfa 

 is a single instance of a permanent cover. I want others. 



Ques. Is there anything else that could be a permanent cover 

 except the alsike? 



Prof. Stewart : Well, the alsike is not a good plant for this 

 reason : It is a smooth leafed or globose plant and all such 

 plants are severe in their moisture draught. You want a hairy- 

 leafed plant like the hairy vetch. Its moisture draught is ex- 



