EXPERIMENT STATION WORK WITH APPLES. 553 



oxiimiiiation of the last (011111111 of the table shows that the ettect of 

 cultivated (■i"o[)s like eoni and x'e^'etahles is less dryiiio- on the soil 

 than irrass or small j^rain crops." Not only is tluM'e more moisture in 

 tilled soils tliaii in untilled, hut it is distrilmted nearer the surface, 

 where it is likely to l)o most oti'eetive and readily available for the use 

 of the trees. In orchard tilla«>-e experiments at Cornell" Professor 

 Bailey found that in tilled soils the moistuic was well distributed to 

 within 2 inches of the surface, while in uncultivated soils the tirst few 

 inches were exceodint^ly dry. 



At the Illinois Station * orchard trees <riven clean cultivation made 

 the healthiest and most vigorous g'rowth of several diti'erent methods 

 of management tried. >«'ext in order stood the orchards planted in 

 corn, and following this orchards planted in clover, oats, and blue 

 grass, respectively. Trees in blue grass made trunks only about half as 

 large during the same num])er of years as trees given clean cultivation. 



In some English experiments'" trees grown in grass were but little 

 larger after five years than when set out, and were only one-eighteenth 

 as long as trees given clean cultivation. In these experiments weeds 

 were much less serious in their etlects upon tree growth than gi'ass. At 

 the Utah Station'' an experiment was made in seeding ditierent parts 

 of a young orchard with alfalfa, clover, timothv, and a mixture of 

 timothy and clover, respectively. At the end of three >ears the 

 majority of the trees thus treated were dead, while where clean culti- 

 vation had been given, practically every tree was alive and doing well. 



Professor Emerson, of the Nebraska Station.' found that clean cul- 

 tivation dried the soil least of several ditierent methods of cultivation 

 tried, while vegetables dried the soil but little more than clean cultiva- 

 tion. Corn stood next, followed by oats and rye. In a dry season there 

 was two to three times as much moisture availalile to the trees in clean 

 cultivated plats as in an oat plat. Kye dried th(> soil most of all. 

 This crop comes on early in the season and, on account of its rapid 

 growth, uses up the soil moisture very rapidly, and it is in the early 

 part of the season during the period of most active wood growth tiiat 

 drought produces most serious results. Tli(> orchard experimented 

 upon l)y Professor Emerson had only rc'cently been set out. \\'liere 

 oats were sown in the orchard moi'e than 50 percent of the trt'esdied, 

 \vhil<» less than 8 per cent died on th(> plat giv(Mi clean cultivation, less 

 than 7 per cent where vegetables were grown, and less than U per cent 



«Ne\v York Cornell Sta. Bui. 72. 



''IlliuoiaSta. Bui. 52. 



MVolMirii Expt. Fruit Fiiriii U\.\. l!i(K), pp. 106, 252. 



'/ I'tali Sta. Bui. .ST. 



« Nebranku Sta. Bui. 79. 



