522 Report of the Department of Horticulture of the 



trees in sod a darker green and in the few instances in which differences 

 could not be discerned, the observation was either made very early 

 in the season, or, and this is significant, after or during a period 

 of wet weather. In particular, this was true of the young trees in 

 Plat A. Thus, the color of the foliage is in agreement with the 

 diameter of the trunk, the spread of branch and the height of head, 

 in attesting the greater vigor of tilled trees. 



A fact, possibly of little practical importance but quite suggestive, 

 is that the tilled trees usually blossomed, and so far as our records 

 go, always leafed-out from one to several days in advance of the 

 trees in sod. This is in accord with the behavior of the trees under 

 the two methods of treatment in the Auchter orchard. 1 In the 

 latter orchard temperatures taken throughout one summer showed 

 that the tilled land was warmer than the sodded land, from which 

 the assumption was made that the trees bloomed and leafed earlier 

 in the tilled land because the soil was warmer. If the supposition 

 for the Auchter orchard is correct, we may assume that the tilled 

 land in the Hitchings orchards is warmer. 



Observations on the time of dropping of leaves in the several 

 plats could not be made by observers from the Station but from the 

 following quotations from reports made by Mr. Hitchings it seems 

 that foliage on the sodded trees dropped soonest: 



November 14, 1904. — " The cultivated trees are still hanging on 

 to their leaves." 



October 31, 1905. — " Foliage on tilled plats dark green in color, 

 very few leaves shed; on sod plats the foliage has almost all turned 

 yellow and one-half or more is shed." 



October 29, 1907. — " The foliage on the cultivated plats has held 

 a good color up to date." 



November 2, 1908. — " The foliage held better on the tilled plats; 

 kept green until destroyed by frost." 



In the reports for years other than the four from which the quota- 

 tions given were taken, the time of the leaf-fall is not noted. There 

 is an advantage and a disadvantage for trees retaining foliage late 

 in the season without loss of color. When foliage takes on autumn 

 colors and drops early, the growing season is cut short and the trees 

 probably lose somewhat in growth and vigor. In late-ripening 

 varieties there is also, no doubt, some loss in size of fruit and, since 



»N. Y. Sta. Bui. 314 : 103. 1909. 



