No. 7. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



535 



INFLUENCE OF ISOIL- MANAGEMENT AND MANURES^ 



The experiment figured here is located in Bedford county, with 

 J. R. Sleek. Others with J. H. Ledy, and with John A. Nicodemus, 

 Franklin county, and with F. H. Fassett, Wyoming county. 



Figure No. 2 shows the plan of our soil management experi- 

 ment. Soil management is so closely related to the use of fertilizers 

 that it has seemed inadvisable to completely separate them. This 

 experiment, in addition to comparing the different systems of man- 

 agement, tests the value of commercial and stable manures in con- 

 nection with each. The stable manure is applied annually at the rate 

 of 12 T. per acre and the commercial fertilizers at the rate of 30 

 ibs. of potash (K20). On the sod-mulch plot, all grass is left in the 

 orchard and an additional mulch of straw at the rate of three tons 

 per acre is applied annually. 



TABLE 5. 

 Influence of Soil Management on Yield, 1907, 1908. 



Yields, 1907, ... 

 Yields, 190S, ... 

 Totals 2 years, 



Ratios 



Ratios 



Mature Orchard. 



Yields, 2 years. 

 Ratios 



4,037 lbs. 

 13,561 

 17,688 

 lOO 



3,359 lbs. 

 16,112 

 19,471 



110 



lOO 



353.8 

 140- 



4,425 



18,692 



23,117 



130 



118. 



lbs. 



25,266 

 100 



4,481 lbs. 

 15,473 

 19,954 

 113 



Table No, 5 shows the yields obtained from the different systems 

 of soil management during the last two years. Results for both 

 years are given here because the current year's crop can be more 

 directly influenced by cultural methods than by fertilizers. The re- 

 sults given here, and those in the later tables on young orchards, 

 have been obtained by combining the yields from three orchards of 

 six to fifteen years of age. The mature orchard is thirty-five years 

 old. 



As shown in the table, the young orchards have yielded better 

 under the sod-mulch and sod treatments, while the mature orchard 

 is best with tillage and cover crop. Sod-mulch in young orchards 

 shows 30 per cent, better yields than clean tillage and 181/2 better 

 than the cover crop method, while in the mature orchard the cover- 

 crop is 40 per cent, better than the sod-mulch. If these differences 

 are maintained by later results, they would indicate that the mulch 

 treatment is of value in developing and establishing the bearing 



