New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 35 



in the course of winter or spring pruning and burned to destroy eggs 

 contained in them. 



Cabbage aphis. — This species of aphis, regarded as one of the prin- 

 cipal enemies of cabbage, is the subject of Circular No. 30. This is 

 a popular treatise, illustrated with two plates and two text figures, 

 in which the different stages are described and figured and the 

 seasonal history is discussed. The circular closes with a brief dis- 

 cussion of the merits of spraying mixtures and on the selection of 

 a spraying machine for effective work against the pest. 



horticultural department. 



Tillage and sod mulch in the Hitchings orchard. — For ten years this 

 Station has been comparing sod mulch and tillage in apple orchards. 

 Bulletin No. 375 is a brief account of the experience in the Hitchings 

 orchard, the most notable exception which proves the rule that tillage 

 is the most profitable method for orchard culture under general con- 

 ditions. From the work in this orchard the following conclusions 

 were reached: 



While unquestionably tillage is the best method of caring for the 

 majority of the apple orchards in New York, yet there are particular 

 places, soils and economic conditions under which the Hitchings 

 method of sod-mulching apple trees may be used advantageously: 



1st. Orchards on steep hillsides where land would wash badly 

 under tillage may often well be kept in sod. 



2nd. On land covered with rocks, trees may best stand in sod. 



3rd. The Hitchings method is adapted only to soils having suit- 

 able depth. On shallow soils it will usually prove a failure. 



4th. Soils must be retentive of moisture. On land that annually 

 suffers from summer droughts the sod-mulch treatment will almost 

 certainly prove less beneficial to trees than tillage. 



5th. Economic conditions may decide the choice between tillage 

 and some mulching treatment, since the cost of caring for an orchard 

 is so much less under the Hitchings mode of mulching than by tillage. 

 Thus a larger acreage in sod may be made to counter-balance a 

 greater productiveness under tillage, thereby bringing the net in- 

 come to the same level. 



A comparison of tillage and sod mulch in an apple orchard. — Bulletin 

 No. 383 is the third account of studies by the New York Agricultural 

 Experiment Station to determine whether the apple thrives better 



