New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 507 



ticable in the apple regions of New York because it is impossible 

 to get mulching material, since straw or other roughage is not largely 

 grown. 



With the particular treatment just outlined, in mind, we pass to 

 two other factors which play equally important parts in the Hitch- 

 ings orchard — the site and the soil. Indeed, it is impossible to 

 separate these two factors from the treatment in accounting for 

 the results Mr. Hitchings obtained; for all are fundamentals in his 

 success. 



OUTLINE OF EXPERIMENT. 



SITE. 



The Hitchings farm is in the south-central part of Onondaga 

 County, a region noted for dairy products and alfalfa but not con- 

 spicuous for its apples. There are few or no commercial orchards 

 within several miles of the Hitchings place and the nearest market 

 for apples is in Syracuse, nine miles away, to which place the fruit 

 is hauled by team. Previous to making a commercial planting of 

 apples Mr. Hitchings had been a dairyman but gave up cows to 

 grow apples, small fruits and vegetables. These statements are 

 made because it is important to know that Mr. Hitchings is a pioneer 

 apple-grower in his locality and that as a pioneer he has blazed a 

 new and original trail in fruit-growing. 



The Hitchings farm is in the slightly rolling bottom and on the 

 foothills of a deep valley, poorly shown in the frontispiece because 

 the camera does not give an adequate idea of the height of the hills 

 surrounding. On the level valley-bottom is located Plat A of our 

 experiment, consisting of young trees. The sides of the valley are 

 long, steep hills, the slope, of which the farm is a part, rising to an 

 altitude of 400 or 500 feet in a distance of about a half mile. At the 

 foot of this great hill, and as a part of it, is the main orchard, in 

 which Plat B and Plat C, consisting of older trees, are located. The 

 land lies in too steep an incline in this orchard for convenient culti- 

 vation and under constant tillage the soil would wash more or less 

 unless the work be carefully done. The ground, too, is a little 

 uneven whereby some trees are on hummocks and others in 

 hollows. This unevenness accounts in part for the lack of uniform- 

 ity in the growth and productiveness of the trees conspicuous 

 in the tables given later. 



