New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 519 



at a stand-off with the odds a little in favor of the trees in sod. The 

 tilled and sodded trees of Northern Spys in Plat C made almost 

 an identical average increase in diameter in the ten years, there being 

 but the insignificant difference of .01 of an inch. The diameters, 

 it should be said, were taken at one foot from the ground. 



Table II. — Diameters of Apple Tree Trunks on Sod and Tilled Land. 



PLAT A, HITCHINGS ORCHARD. 



Gai?is /or iSod. Gains /or Tillage. 



Fameuse 89 inch R. I. Greening 1 .09 inches. 



Northern Spy 01 " Sutton 1 .22 " 



Wealthy 73 " 



Should we take growth in diameter of the tree trunk as the sole 

 gauge of the value of the two treatments in the sidehill orchard, we 

 should have to say that the trees thrive seemingly as well under one 

 method as the other. Using the same measure for the trees on the 

 floor of the valley, we must conclude that the trees are doing much 

 the better under tillage. Why the difference? We answer at once, 

 because the soil is deep enough to give the trees a much larger root- 

 run on the hillside, whereby they get away from the grass, and because 

 the hillside seepage furnishes an abundance of moisture for both 

 trees and grass. In the comparatively shallow and dry soil of the 

 valley, trees and grass compete in the sod for food and moisture 

 and the trees suffer. 



There is a close agreement in the growth of parts or organs of trees 

 as affected by different treatments or conditions and when, as with 

 these trees, trunk diameters can be given for a series of seasons, there 

 is little need of other measurements to show vigor and health. There 



