510 Report of the Department of Horticulture of the 



foreign to the experiment and therefore not henceforth to be con- 

 sidered. 



The surface of Plat B is somewhat broken, but the main soil 

 type is fairly uniform. The soil is Miami stony loam, shading in 

 places into gravelly loam, exceedingly variable in depth, brown in 

 color and more or less sandy in texture. In places on this plat the 

 soil contains a high precentage of broken rock or shale fragments, 

 especially on its higher portions. The subsoil is of fair depth and 

 consists of a deep brownish-yellow clay loam with a considerable 

 proportion of gravel and shale fragments. 



Plat C. — Plat C is up the slope above Plat B. The trees were 

 ten years of age at the beginning of the experiment and are set at 

 the same distances apart as those in Plat B. The area of the tilled 

 and sod plats is .27 acre each. Diagram 3 shows the plan of the 

 plat. The sixth tree in row 3 could not be used and a tree in 

 row 5 had to be substituted. 



The soil in Plat C is Miami stony loam. It is not so gravelly 

 as that of Plat B, is somewhat shallower in depth and contains more 

 large stone but otherwise it is very similar. 



A mechanical analysis of the soils in these plats was not made 

 but their chemical constituents were carefully studied to see, if 

 possible, under which of the two treatments the soil was most depleted 

 of fertility. Table V, page 526, gives the results of chemical analyses 

 of the soils at the end of the ten-year period. The analyses, it suffices 

 to say here, show the soil to be fairly well supplied with phosphorus, 

 potassium and nitrogen but rather deficient in lime. 



That these plats are not suitable for accurate experimental work 

 must be admitted at once. The defects are many. Thus, the trees 

 in B and C are too few, the plats are of unequal areas, there are too 

 many varieties, the trees in the several plats are of different ages, 

 the land on the hillside is uneven and the soil is not uniform. But 

 better plats could not be laid out in the Hitchings orchards and it 

 was much desired that a comparison of sod mulch and tillage be 

 made here where the mulch system had become most prominent 

 in New York. 



MEASURING THE RESULTS. 



When the work in hand was turned over to the writer the plan 

 of procedure had not developed further than the taking of notes 

 on the yields and expenses of the several plats. As the project took 



