A COMPAEISON OF TILLAGE AND SOD MULCH 

 IN AN APPLE ORCHARD.* 



SECOND REPORT FOR AUCHTER ORCHARD. 

 U. P. HEDRICK. 



SUMMARY. 



This is the third account of studies by the New York Agricultural 

 Experiment Station to determine whether the apple thrives better 

 under tillage or in sod. The first account was published in Bulletin 

 No. 314, 1909; the second in Bulletin No. 375, 1914. 



The experiment of which this Bulletin is a report was begun 

 in 1903 in the orchard of Mr. W. D. Auchter, near Rochester, New 

 York. In this orchard are nine and one-half acres of Baldwin 

 trees, 40 feet apart each way, set in 1877. Of these, 118 are in sod, 

 121 under tillage. 



The Auchter orchard was chosen for this experiment because 

 it was uniform in soil and topography and quite typical of the apple 

 lands of western New York. The land is slightly rolling and is 

 a fertile Dunkirk loam, about ten inches in depth, underlaid by 

 a sandy subsoil. 



The tilled land was plowed each spring and cultivated from four 

 to seven times. The grass in the sod plat was usually cut once, 

 sometimes twice. In all other operations the care was identical. 



The experiment is divided into two five-year periods. During 

 the first period the orchard was divided in halves by a north and 

 south line, during the second period by an east and west line. One- 

 quarter of the orchard, then, has been tilled ten years; another 

 tilled five years and then left in sod five years; the third quarter 

 has been in sod ten years and the fourth quarter in sod five years, 

 then tilled five years. 



The following is a statement of results: 



The average yield on the plat left in sod for ten years was 69.16 

 barrels per acre; on the plat tilled ten years, 116.8; difference 

 in favor of tilled plats, 47.64 barrels per acre per year. 



The fruit from the sod-mulch plats is more highly colored than 

 that from the tilled land. The sodded fruit matures from one 

 to three weeks earlier than the tilled fruit. 



Reprint of Bulletin No. 383, April; for Popular Edition see p. 933. 

 34 [529] 



