910 Populae Editions op Station Bulletins of the 



In B, each section, with an area of almost an acre, contains one 

 row of each of three varieties, Alexander, Wealthy and Fameuse, 

 the trees being nine years old when the test began. The smallest 

 plat of the three and highest in elevation is C, containing six rows 

 of Northern Spy trees, set one year before the trees in B. The area 

 of each section in this plat is but little more than a quarter of an 

 acre. 



The soil in the three plats belongs to the Miami series, ranging 

 from the dark brown, rather tenacious clay loam of the valley floor, 

 moderate in depth, to a deeper soil with more and more stones in 

 the loam, and with some gravelly or sandy spots as the elevation 

 increases in B and C. In all three plats the soil is well supplied 

 with the usual elements of fertility, though somewhat deficient in 

 lime. In B and C the surface of the land is somewhat uneven and 

 the soil, in both depth and character, varies too much to make 

 these plats very suitable for experimental work. " But better plats 

 could not be laid out in the Hitchings orchard and it was much 

 desired that comparison of sod mulch and tillage be made where 

 the mulch system had become most prominent in New York." The 

 general plan of the experiment was outlined at the Station, but the 

 operations were left to Mr. Hitchings' judgment and most of the 

 records were kept by him, as the location is rather inconvenient for 

 frequent visits by Station men. 



p ,, The trees were in sod when the experiment began, 



those in Plat A having been set in sod; and the grass 

 roots have been left undisturbed throughout the ten years on the 

 sod-mulch sections. Once each summer, or twice if necessary, the 

 grass was mowed, and usually left to lie where it fell, to form the 

 mulch. In A, part of the grass was cured for hay the first year and 

 removed, the rest being piled about the trees to cover the area 

 through which the roots spread. In subsequent seasons all the grass 

 was thus placed above the roots of the trees in this plat; and the 

 same plan was followed in B and C for two or three years, after 

 which the grass mulch was left undisturbed, as Mr. Hitchings believed 

 the roots had then met between the rows of trees. 



In the tillage section the land was plowed in late April or early 

 May each year, cultivated from seven to twelve times during the 

 summer, with special hoeing or spading about the trees as the owner 

 thought advisable. In one season the trees in one section were hoed 

 five times. In every year but one a cover crop was sowed about 

 August 1. This was usually of mammoth clover or crimson clover 

 but wheat was used twice. This cover crop was turned down the 

 next spring. 



Results Disappointment followed disappointment on Plat 



r .. A; for a' severe winter at the outset killed several 



trees and undoubtedly lowered the vitality of 



many others. Because of this, or, more probably, because the valley 



