560 Report of the Department of Horticulture of the 



There are orchards in which, paradoxically enough, ill-treatment 

 may prove beneficial. Thus, it is common knowledge that checking 

 a tree which is luxuriating in growth may make it more fruitful. 

 In rich, moist soils, then,, sod may be beneficial as a permanent 

 treatment for an orchard. So, too, in an orchard such as the one 

 in which this work has been carried on, grass, in an occasional homeo- 

 pathic dose, might prove valuable. 



The question is often asked as to whether sod will have the same 

 deleterious effect on other tree fruits that it has on the apple. 

 Observation leads us to answer in the affirmative. Indeed, with 

 peaches and plums at least, harm is done even more quickly and 

 is more serious. 



Occasionally we hear objections to the general application of 

 our results on the ground that we have worked with but one 

 variety — the Baldwin. To such objection we reply that the all 

 but fatal effects of grass may be seen in innumerable orchards in 

 New York quite regardless of variety, age of tree, whether dwarf 

 or standard, or of cultural treatment, as spraying, pruning and the 

 like. 



The effect of sod on dwarf trees, the roots of which are much 

 nearer the surface than those of standards, must in most situations 

 be even more serious than on the trees in this experiment — a fact 

 to be borne in mind by amateurs in planting in door-yards which 

 are usually in grass. 



Orchardists who pasture hogs, sheep or cattle in their plantations 

 very generally hold that their trees behave differently than do 

 those in our experiments. We have taken pains to visit many 

 such orchards and have yet to find one in which cannot be recognized 

 in greater or less degree the earmarks of grass injury. 



Since the publication of the first report on the Auchter orchard 

 many men whose trees are in sod have told me that they could 

 not discover the evil effects of grass so apparent in our work. In 

 most such cases there were no means of making comparisons — tilled 

 trees were not at hand. Within my observation whenever men 

 with sodded orchards in western New York have plowed, tilled 

 and used a cover-crop in a part of their orchard, they have needed 

 no further argument for tillage. The complaint is becoming very 

 common that continuous tillage with leguminous cover-crops pro- 

 duces too many poorly colored apples. How best to avoid this 



