512 Report of the Department of Horticulture of the 



Sod plats. — The sod was established, as we have seen, before the 

 experimental work was begun. It consisted in 1905, when the writer 

 first saw it, of a good sward of orchard grass with some blue grass, 

 in which was a rather diversified flora of the weeds commonly found 

 in meadows; as, the docks, wild carrot, ox-eye daisy, mullein, flea- 

 bane and the plantains, with peppermint in the wettest places in the 

 hillside orchard. In the ten years the sod-flora has varied but little. 

 The character of the sod is shown in the several illustrations in 

 this bulletin. The grass was mowed on the following dates: 



In Plat A the mowed grass in 1904 was in part sold for hay, but 

 was piled about the young trees in all of the succeeding seasons. 

 The grass was put under the trees in B and C the first three 

 summers but not afterwards, since the roots of these older trees 

 at this age began to meet in the spaces between rows. It is hard 

 to estimate the amount of hay the cut grass would have made per 

 acre in the two orchards, but an average of one and one-half tons 

 would probably be fair. 



Tilled plats. — The following is a memorandum of the treatment 

 of the tilled plats: 



TREATMENT OF TILLED PLATS. 



1904. All plats plowed in May and cultivated during the season seven times. 

 Cover-crop of clover sown about August 1st; trees hoed three times. 



1905. All plats plowed in May and cultivated seven times thereafter. Cover-crop 

 of clover sown about August 1st; trees hoed five times. 



1906. Plats plowed April 24-25 and Plat A cultivated nine times and B and 

 C eight times. Trees in A hoed four times and in B and C three times; cover-crop 

 of clover sown August 1st. 



1907. Plats plowed April 30-May 2; A cultivated ten times and B and C eight 

 times; trees in all plats spaded about once and those in A hoed about once; cover- 

 crop of clover sown August 3. 



1908. Plats plowed April 22-23; A cultivated twelve times and hoed three times, 

 B cultivated ten times and C eight times; cover-crop of crimson clover sown August 

 7 in A and on the 8th in B and C. 



