FORTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 19 



ideal condition for retaining an abnndant snpi)ly of water, air and 

 nourishment at all times. 



In onr own experience the results with these blocks of Duchess are 

 a good illustration of what sod mulch will do. From weakly, yellow trees 

 bearing- irregular cro])s of apples deficient in size and color they have 

 gradually become healthy and robust, the leaves are abundant and a 

 rich green in color, the annual growth from one to two or more feet, 

 while bearing heavy crops of apples large and of splendid appearance 

 in both size and color. The orchards are easy to care for and we can 

 work in them at any time. It is never too wet, never muddy or dusty 

 and the appearance is always neat and pleasant to look at. 



Some say sod mulch apples are small, but this is not so in our orchard, 

 for even as dry as it was last summer, when our trees matured the 

 largest crop of their lives, the size was above the average and many 

 commented upon it. 



In the experiments in the Hitchings' orchard in New York, Prof. 

 Hedrick says there was no apparent difference in size of fiiiit between 

 sod mulch and cultivation, and in yield, four varieties of apples in a 

 ten-year experiment on trees ten years old to start with, the average 

 |)er tree per year under sod mulch was nearly four bushels, while the 

 average on the cultivated portion was a little over three. 



As far as color of fruit is concerned it is conceded by all that sod mulch 

 apples are much better colored and this is what we all want — big, red 

 apples. 



With us a very important advantage of sod mulch is in the high 

 (piality of the drop, or windfall fruit. Especially in a straw mulched 

 (U'chard is this noticeable, the drops being so slightly injured as to be 

 practically all salable and they are always free from mud or dust. Often 

 onr windfalls have more than paid the entire cost of picking and market- 

 ing the balance of the crop. 



Perhaps the lecord of the yield of these Duchess orchards may be of 

 interest, and they are given herewith. They show considerable regularity 

 in bearing, a point in which sod mulch has the advantage over cultiva- 

 tion, a greater tendency toward annual cropping. Trees in sod will 

 come into bearing, as a rule, earlier than under cultivation. 



That the quality was good is evidenced by the fact that the average 

 ])rice per bushel for the eleven years, and this included all the grades, — 

 No. 1, No. 2 and windfalls — was seventy cents a bushel net. This did 

 not allow for cost of production, but all expenses for picking, packing, 

 marketing and packages, etc., were taken out. 



One idea that many have, and it is a mistaken one, is that the tendency 

 of cultivation is to force the root system lower where there is more 

 fertility and less danger from extremes of heat and cold and drouth, and 

 that the sod mulch has a tendency in directly the opposite direction. 

 The Ohio Experiment Station made some interesting investigations 

 along this line, and they found there was remarkably little difference 

 between the two methods; almost the entire feeding root system being 

 in the top six inches of soil. Under cultivation few feeders were below 

 this in the hard, unworked soil below the ploAV, and almost all the tiny 

 feedere were forced to the surface of the soil, so that with the annual 

 plowing the entire system was sheared off but without any apparent 



