HORTICULTURE. 45 



The establishment of an apple orchard, A. J. Fabley (New Jersey Stas. 

 Circ. 31, pp. S-8). — Practical iustructious are giveu for the establishment aucl 

 care of a young apple orchard diiriug the first season. 



Cost of an apple orchard to bearing age, M. C. Burritt (Rural New Yorker, 

 73 (19W, Nos. 4245, p. 3U; 42J,6, p. 406; 4247, p. 468).— The author outlines 

 his methods of keeping records and presents data showing the cost of growing 

 to bearing age of two particular apple orchards, one 11 years old filled one way 

 with plums and the other G years old filled both ways with peaches. 



He concludes from his own experience that by the use of tree fillers and inter- 

 crops an orchard at 10 years of age can be made practically selfsupporting. 

 At the same time the opinion is advanced that on the average the net profits 

 from orchards during their entire life time do not greatly exceed the net returns 

 from ordinary field crops. The author calls attention to the importance of 

 keeping accurate records of orchards for their entire life time in order to avoid 

 false ideas of profits and to steady land values. 



Apples on Long Island, P. E. Nostrand (Rural New Yorker, 73 (1914), ^os. 

 4245, p. 341; 4246, p. 403; 4247, p. 443; 4248, p. //85).— In this article the author 

 briefly describes his experience in growing apples and gives notes on the char- 

 acter and condition of a large number of varieties tested in his orchard. In 

 most cases twenty or moi'e trees of each variety were planted. 



The apple in Pennsylvania: Varieties, planting, and general care, J. P. 

 Stewart (Pennsylvania Sta. Bui. 128 (1914), pp. 109-136, figs, ii).— This bulle- 

 tin contains practical directions for the planting, care, and niauagemeut of an 

 apple orchard, including also a descriptive list of varieties adapted for plant- 

 ing in various sections of Pennsylvania. The subject matter is based largely 

 on the station's experiments and observations in orcharding which have been 

 in progress for a number of years. 



Tillage and sod mulch in the Hitchings orchard, U. P. Hedbick (New 

 York State Sta. Bui. 375 (1914), PP- 55-80, pis. 7).— This is the second report 

 on the station's comparative tests of tillage and sod mulch in apple orchard 

 culture. The first report gave the results secured for the first five years in an 

 orchard in the apple belt of western New York, and tillage was found to be 

 the better treatment (E. S. R., 21, p. 23S). The experiment described in the 

 present report has been carried on for a period of ten years in the Hitchings 

 orchard near Syracuse, which orchard has become famous because, contrary 

 to the usual practice of tillage followed by a cover crop, the sod mulch system, 

 commonly known as the Hitchings method, has been used with great success. 



The tests were made in a level valley plat of 2-year-old trees, in a plat of 

 9-year-old trees on the lower part of a rolling hill, and in a plat of 10-year-old 

 trees higher up on the hillside. In each plat half of the land was in tillage and 

 half in sod. The tilled plats were plowed early in the spring and cultivated 

 from seven to eleven times, a cover crop, usually of clover, following. In the 

 sod plats was a mixed growth of orchard grass and blue grass, the grasses be- 

 ing mowed usually about the middle of June and left as they fell to form the 

 " sod mulch." All plats were given identical care except as to the above soil 

 treatment. 



The young orchard matured so slowly that no yield data were secured. In 

 the bearing sections the trees in sod bore an average of a little less than 4 bu. 

 per tree per year, or about 4/5 bu. per tree more than the trees under tillage. 

 Year in and year out there was little difference in size between the apples in 

 the two sections. In the young orchard the trees grew somewhat better and 

 more uniformly on the tilled plat, while in the bearing sections the trees ap- 

 peared to thrive as well under either method of culture. The cost of tillage 

 ranged from $11.22 per acre on the level plat to $24.33 per acre on the rough 



