398 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



vate their orchards. It was found that the trees responded to good 

 care. Fifteen or twenty years ago practically all the Experiment 

 Stations were united in the belief that orchards were improved by 

 cultivation and tillage. Thoie weie some exceptionvS where or- 

 chards were planted on hillsides or wet land. Some of the.se excep- 

 tions were so remarkable that much attention was called to them. 

 One or two of our agricultural papers in particular, began to cite 

 these exceptional cases as best for all. This led to a controversy 

 as to the merits of soil and tillage. Our lOxperiment Station, at 

 Geneva, N. Y., felt that it was necessary to try the two methods side 

 by side. I want now to give you an account in some detail of one 

 of these experiments. 



My subject implies a controversy. This disputed question is, 

 Will an apple orchard thrive and fruit better under tillage or in 

 sod with the grass used as a mulch? The Geneva Experiment Sta- 

 tion is conducting two exi)eriments to settle this qiie^tion. This 

 paper is largely a report on one of these trials of the two methods 

 of orchard management, the other not having been carried far 

 enough to warrant a report. In a controversy of any kind terms 

 must be defined, and to properly understand an experiment the con- 

 ditions under which it is undertaken must be considered and I hasten 

 to these tasks. 



Is it necessary to define tillage? The definition is short and 

 clear. To till is to plow, cultivate or to hoe the soil. Tillage is an 

 humble word Avith its flavor of soil and its suggestiveness of sweat- 

 ing toil but it is an old word and should be an honored one. It has 

 rendered mankind untold and untellable service; it is practiced 

 wherever tliere is agriculture in the world and nearly all of the 

 plants Avhich minister to the needs of human kind have been im- 

 proved by tillage. To plow, cultivate, or hoe, to turn and stir the 

 soil, and so improve the crop, or so improve the soil, these simple 

 operations were the beginnings of agriculture and the beginnings c>f 

 civilization and they have been the chief tasks of all civilized peo- 

 ples. Tillage is so universal, and is so essential a part of agricul- 

 ture that those who oppose it for any domesticated plant should 

 look well to its origin, to its history and to its present place in agri- 

 culture before charging it with evil. 



There are two words to define in the compound word sod-mulch. 

 Sod is soil made compact and held together by the matted roots 

 of living grass. A mulch is an organic material placed about trees 

 to prevent evapoiation and to furnish humus. The sod-mulch ad- 

 vocates divide into several sects in their manner of making use of 

 sod and mulch. One sect keeps sheep on the sod, another pigs, and 

 still another says the grass is not sufficient and must be supple- 

 mented with straw or manure. 



•We can understand the experiment to be discussed better if we 

 take a glance at the philosophy of tillage and that of sod-mulch. 

 The objects of tillage are so well set forth by one of the leading 

 living authorities on the subject. Professor F. H. King, that I give 

 them without a change of a single word: 



'^(1) To secure a thorough surface uniformity of the field, so 

 that an equally vigorous growth may take place over the entire 

 area. 



