564 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



of all nature can perform its function, and then thin so as to preserve 

 the vitality of the tree; and he who follows persistently this "dic- 

 tum" will be rewarded by tine, vigorous, healthy trees, bearing fruit 

 of highest quality, and producing its fruit annually, barring only 

 extreme weather conditions 



What are the three systems of orchard management and which 

 will produce the best results for the practical orchardist with the 

 most economy? 



The Sod System, which has been mostly practiced in the past, 

 and still has many adherents, has nothing to commend it other than 

 that it saves labor or cultivating, binds washing soils and makes 

 getting through the orchard with teams for gathering fruit, etc., 

 easier, and saves much fallen fruit. But these apparent advantages 

 are overcome by the many disadvantages; in the first place to grow 

 the sod, which usually consists of timothy, red top, orchard or 

 herd grass, requires 70 pounds of nitrogen, 18 pounds phosphoric 

 acid and 77 pounds of potash, the commercial value of which is $15.25 

 and $11.27 worth of these elements are required to grow leaves, 

 wood and fruit of the trees themselves, it will be seen that to grow 

 this seed crop in addition to the trees, it would require the appli- 

 cation of manure or fertilizer to the value of $2G.52. But this is 

 not the worst factor in the sod system; if in sod there is an impos- 

 sibilty to control the w 7 ood growth and bud formation, and the 

 storage in the tree of the necessary nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 

 potash to develop and bring to full maturity the fruit because 

 the moisture supply cannot be controlled. The cutting of the sod 

 crop and not removing it is not effective with the growing crop 

 thereon; so that the sod system is a faulty one from either a scien- 

 tific or practical standpoint, and should only be practiced upon 

 such locations as make the other systems impossible. The advo- 

 cates of the sod system claim that fruit grown under such sytem will 

 carry better than when grown under any other system. I will grant 

 this, for the reason that such fruit is of low quality; high quality 

 fruit being tender, breaking and juicy, will not stand rough handling, 

 etc., or live as long. 



The Mulch System differs from the Sod System in that the soil 

 is cultivated and the mulch drawn on to the orchard, and in this 

 way we secure all the benefits of the cultural system. Moisture, 

 air, nitrification — w r ood and bud growth at the season that these 

 should be made and storing into the tree all the necessary plant 

 food elements to grow and fully mature the fruit; the difficulties 

 of securing the amount of mulch required, because this system re- 

 quires just as perfect and complete attention to details and thor- 

 oughness as other systems to be successful; this difficulty makes 

 the mulch ystem on a large scale impracticable. 



The Cultural System, practiced upon a thoroughly practical soil, 

 and in accord with present knowledge of soils and tree and fruit phy- 

 siology is suited to a greater variety of conditions and within the 

 reach of every orchardist. This method, pursued as it should be, 

 requires that orchards should be ploughed as early in the spring 

 as the soil will permit; after ploughing they should be cultivated 

 once a week with such implement as conditions require when culti- 

 vating is to be done; this continued each week until July 1st, to 

 10th, according to lateness or earliness of the season, and culture 



