No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. i05 



region. But there are peculiarities of soil and location which 

 might change them even in Western New York, and no doubt they 

 would be more or less changed in Pennsylvania. It is a simple 

 matter for an orchardist to plow up a part of a sodded orchard and 

 cultivate it for a few years; or as easy for one who has a tilled 

 orchard to lay a part of it down to grass, cutting the grass as a 

 mulch, and in a few years he can see what happens. We want more 

 experimenters among fruit growers and these are good experiments 

 to try when a man becomes dissatisfied with the crops of apples he 

 is getting. 



The opportunity of giving another warning can not be lost. The 

 sod-mulch method is heralded as the cheap-and-easy method. But 

 some men can not stand cheap-and-easy methods. If they begin 

 by applying it to tillage they are likely to look for a cheap-and- 

 easy way of planting, the Stringfellow way for instance, a cheap- 

 and-easy w^ay of pruning and a cheap-and easy way of spraying. 

 Some will disembarass themselves with the necessity of taking care 

 of their trees at all and in the end will wind up as ornery, no-account 

 apple growers. I do not mean to say that all will but some of them 

 will. You remember no doubt in Pilgrim's Progress how Bunyan's 

 characters had their natural associates. Thus the young lady whose 

 name was Dull chose as her companions. Simple, Sloth, Linger- 

 after-Lust, Slow-pace, No-heart and Sleepy-head. Cheap-and-easy 

 has his natural associates and they are a bad lot. Take care how 

 you cultivate their acquaintance. Better keep them under a sod- 

 mulch. 



In chemistry, physics, astronomy and all of the exact sciences 

 the workers constitute a jury of keen, trained men before which new 

 doctrines can be tried. The jury is always sitting and false doctrine 

 is quickly weeded out. Agriculture has no such jury. Its workers 

 are scattered; many are apathetic; they differ in trainirrg and in 

 degree of intelligence; and they speak many languages. There can, 

 therefore, be no suitable jury to try new doctrine, and there are no 

 recognized authorities to approve or disapprove of them. It comes 

 about, therefore, that false and erroneous doctrines often grow un- 

 heeded and choke out the true and the useful. Agriculture needs 

 now and ever to be defended against false doctrine. I am ventur- 

 ing to play the part of a defender to-day and if I have gone far 

 in defense of tillage and in condemnation of sod-mulch it is because 

 there is need. 



COLD STORAGE A NECESSITY 



By CLARK ALLIS, Medina. N. Y., Commercial Orchardist (500 acres in apple), 

 and President New York Fruit Growers' Association. 



The reason I have been studying lately on the storage problem is 

 because the buyer seems to have a corner on the storage question, 

 with us, and wants a large share of the. profit. What I say may 

 not be right or to the point, but it is as I have found it. I saw 



