REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 

 HORTICULTURE. 



TILLAGE AND SOD MULCH IN THE HITCHINGS 



ORCHARD* 



U. P. HEDRICK. 



SUMMARY. 



For ten years this Station has been comparing sod mulch and 

 tillage in apple orchards. This bulletin 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 conditions. The Hitchings orchard 

 is unique among the fruit plantations of the State. Both the lay 

 of the land and the character of the soil differ from those in most 

 orchards ; and the trees have been planted, pruned and sprayed, the 

 soil tilled, and the fruit harvested in very original ways. By the 

 " Hitchings method " as applied by its owner, the ground is laid 

 down to sod before or as soon as the trees are set and the grass 

 is cut for a mulch once or twice a season as conditions demand; 

 that is, the orchard remains in sod indefinitely. 



In the experimental work three plats are included : Plat A lies on 

 the floor of the valley and is comparatively level. It consists of 

 eight rows of thirty-four trees each, two years old at the beginning 

 of the experiment, the varieties being Wagener, Rhode Island 

 Greening and Sutton. Plat B lies on the lower part of a rolling hill 

 It contains six rows, each of thirteen trees, the varieties being 

 Alexander, Wealthy and Fameuse. The trees were nine years 

 old when the experiment began. Plat C is higher up on the hillside 

 and consists of four rows, each of six trees of Northern Spy. These 

 trees were ten years of age at the beginning of the experiment. 

 In each plat half the land is in tillage and half in sod. All three 

 plats appear to be well supplied with phosphorus, potash and nitrogen ; 

 all are on deep soil; and B and C receive the hillside seepage. 

 All these factors favor the sod-mulch method. All plats were given 

 identical care except in the matter of soil treatment. The tilled 

 plats were plowed early in the spring and cultivated from seven 



* Reprint of Bulletin No. 375, March; for Popular Edition see p. 909. 



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