554 Report of the Department of Horticulture of the 



conclusion. Observations, too, of orchards in all parts of New 

 York show clearly that apples in sod suffer most in soils in which 

 the water supply is deficient. 



Fruit-growers must bear in mind in comparing tillage with sod 

 methods that the trees are not only robbed of water by the grass 

 but that tillage conserves moisture — thus the difference in the results 

 from these sodded and tilled trees is due to a bad effect of sod plus 

 a good effect of tillage. It is, then, if we accept the teachings of 

 this test, not only necessary to keep sod out of an orchard but to 

 practice tillage, which, as all know, protects the soil from the drying 

 action of wind and sun and conserves moisture. 



Sod injures apple-trees by decreasing some elements of the food 

 supply. — It is impossible to establish a difference between results 

 due to a deficiency of water and those due to a deficiency of food, 

 for all of the food of the tree derived from the soil is taken up in the 

 form of a solution. Therefore, a tree suffering from want of water 

 of necessity suffers from want of food. We may have, then, and 

 probably do have in this experiment, trees starving in a fertile soil 

 because of a lack of water for the soil solution. 



There is nothing to indicate that any of the food elements are 

 lacking for either trees or grass in this orchard excepting, possibly, 

 nitrogen in the sodded part — a matter to be discussed in a later 

 paragraph. Analyses made in 1908 l and again in 1913, the results 

 of the latter shown in Table II, show, as we have seen, a soil more 

 than rich enough for the apple — a plant the food requirements for 

 which are comparatively small. The trees, it will be remembered, were 

 in no way improved in sod or under tillage by additions for several 

 years of potassium and phosphorus and one heavy application of 

 lime. The trees in the tilled land at no time gave evidence of thinness 

 of fare — they flourished like the Biblical palm. Even in the sod 

 such trees as could get any considerable portion of their roots in 

 the tilled plats or in adjoining tilled fields, prospered in proportion. 

 The growth of grass was always luxuriant, except in stresses of dry 

 weather, giving further evidence that the land is not impoverished. 

 Moreover, we have demonstrated that in this type of soil, in western 

 New York at least, the starvation point for the apple is much lower 

 than for field or garden crops 2 — the trees thrive where grains or 



1 N. Y. Sta. Bui. 314: 124. 1909. 



2 N. Y. Sta. Bui. 339: 1911. 



