526 Report of the Department of Horticulture of the 



effects of the two treatments on the soil. 



It is important to know how the two treatments have affected 

 the food and humus content of the soil in the three plats. Table 

 V shows the chemical analyses of soils in the sod and tillage sections 

 of the plats at the close of the experiment. Only the columns in 

 the table showing total carbon and nitrogen content need be con- 

 sidered in the present inquiry, the amounts of other substances 

 being given chiefly to show the character of the soil. None of the 

 constituents of the soils, excepting the two selected, in quantities 

 as large as the analyses show them to exist, may reasonably be 

 expected to have been appreciably changed in the ten years of this 

 experiment. 



Table V. — Analyses of Soil from Hitchings Orchard. 



POUNDS PER ACRE IN FIRST SEVEN INCHES. 



Plat A: 



Sod . . . 



Tillage. 

 Plat B: 



Sod . . . 



Tillage. 



2,520 

 2,580 



4,400 

 4,580 



POUNDS PER ACRE IN SECOND SEVEN INCHES. 



41 



,540 

 ,560 



,920 

 ,000 



9,600 

 7,600 



11,400 

 12,400 



6,800 

 5,400 



8,200 

 9,000 



21,600 

 15,000 



17,200 

 22,200 



13,000 

 9,000 



10,400 

 13,400 



49,600 

 55,200 



15 



,200 

 ,800 



1,520 

 900 



1,660 

 1,260 



680 

 400 



740 

 560 



33,600 

 26,800 



52,400 



4,200 

 3,600 



6,200 

 5,600 



The amounts of carbon found in the analyses of tilled and sodded 

 soils indicate that there is considerably less humus in the tilled 

 land than in that kept in sod. The same is true of nitrogen. Whether 

 the quantities of humus and nitrogen found in the tilled land are 

 sufficient for the needs of the apple we do not know. Neither do 

 we know whether humus and nitrogen are increasing or decreasing 

 in the. several plats, since, unfortunately, analyses were not 

 made at the beginning of the experiment. It may reasonably be 

 assumed, however, that under the action of tillage and with the 

 comparatively sparse cover crops turned under in the tilled plats, 

 both humus and nitrogen have decreased more than is good for apple 



