New York Agkicultural Experiment Station. 543 



the deleterious effect of sod when we add the illuminating evidence, 

 that the trees have grown comparatively little in ten years, to that 

 regarding yields which shows that they were actually bearing less 

 fruit than formerly. The conjunction of the two spells ruin. 



Plate XLVIII, though made from a photograph taken at a con- 

 siderable distance from the orchard, shows that the trees in sod, corre- 

 sponding to the trunk diameters, are smaller than those under tillage. 



Uniformity of trees. — In no respect do the trees in sod in this 

 orchard show injury more strikingly than in the matter of uniformity. 

 They lacked uniformity in every organ and function of which note 

 could be taken. To particularize: A tree in sod would bear on 

 one branch, not on others; fruit on one side would be large, on another 

 small; or, the crop would be well-colored in part and the remainder 

 poorly colored; branches and foliage differed much on individual 

 trees; the circumference of the root system of the sodded trees was 

 very irregular in outline and uneven in depth. The lack of uni- 

 formity was, of course, much more noticeable in the respects named 

 in distinct trees in sod, even though growing side by side, than 

 in branches of individual trees. Intermittency in bearing of all 

 trees in sod was greater than under tillage. 



On the contrary, one of the most illuminating pieces of evidence 

 favoring cultivation for this or any other crop was the uniformity 

 of the trees in tillage — a condition the desirability of which is so 

 obvious as to need no discussion. 



The reason for this difference in uniformity, set forth at greater 

 length in the previous report on this orchard, is the lack of uni- 

 formity in the environment of the sodded trees and the greater 

 uniformity brought about by tillage, — as, surface uniformity, equal 

 depths of soil, and evenness in the amount and availability of air, 

 food, moisture and temperature. 



Color and condition of wood. — There is an extraordinary effect of 

 the grass on the color of the new wood, which was mentioned in 

 the previous report and, while it may be of minor importance to the 

 trees, is well worth again noting, since the phenomenon has intensi- 

 fied as the experiment progressed. The differences in the wood 

 can best be described in the words of the first description. 1 



" The whole tree top on the tilled land is a light, bright, glossy 

 olive-green color, emphasized somewhat by the plumpness of the 



1 N. Y. Sta. Bui. 314: 108. 1909. 



