no NRP.RASKA ST-VIK I K i i;ri (I l/iTi; A I, SOCIIOTY 



The straw mulch will retain more moisture in the soil than any of 

 the methods where cultivation is practised, and thus it tends to produce 

 quite a vigorous growth each year, buL the branches continue growth 

 too late in the fall as under the clean cuitivation and are apt to be hurt 

 by early freezes. The trees grown under such conditions are not encour- 

 aged to root vc^ry deep as there is an abundance of moisture jusL under- 

 neath this mulch. Young trees grown with such a mulch are more sub- 

 ject to injuries from rodents, and insects and diseases are more preva- 

 lent. It .is almost impossible to use orchard heaters where the stra".' 

 mulch is used on account of the danger of fire. 



In another plat the weeds have been allowed to grow. They are 

 usually mowed three or four times durijig the season, and left lying on 

 the ground. The trees in this plat are not as large as those in the other 

 plats. About the only advantages of this method of orchard manage 

 ment are that there is less work and the fruit grown under such condi- 

 tions is usually of a higher degree of color. 



During the past summer the foliage of the cultivated and especially 

 of the trees of the straw mulched plat, as it is located beside the weed 

 plat, seemed to have a. darker green color than did that of the trees of 

 the weed plat. The season was a rather dry one and this difference of 

 color was accounted for by the assumption that the straw mulch had 

 plenty of moisture which had accumulated previous to the dry part of 

 the season and was being retained by this mulch. 



This difference of the appearance of the foliage led us to wondering 

 how much difference there was in the growth made by the different plats 

 during the season, so it was decided to take measurements of the trees 

 from different plats for comparison. As the Ben Davis trees outnum- 

 bered the other varieties, three representative trees of this variety were 

 selected from each plat, from which measurements were made of the past 

 season's growth. 



From each of these three trees, representative branches from the 

 main trunk of the tree were selected. Two of these were always located 

 on opposite sides of the tree, and one from the central portion of the 

 tree extending upward. Thus v/e were able to get at the average length 

 of branches produced by each tree. 



In order to get a fair comparison between the trees of the different 

 plats, all branches of three-tenths of an inch or more were measured to 

 the tenth of an inch. TJiis included everything grown during the past 

 season except mere buds. For this reason the average length of the 

 branches of the different plats will run very low. However the longer 

 twigs at the outer ends of the branches varied in about the same propor- 

 tions as the average length cf twigs do. 



F'rom a total of 2905 measurements taken from the trees of the clean 

 culture plat, an average length of 2.6 inches was obtained. In the plat 

 where this cultivation was discontinued in July, and a cover crop of mil- 

 let sown, 1,683 measurements were taken which gave an average of l.;t 



