No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 441 



In this portion of the experiment, which is devoted to cultural 

 methods, the plots are larger and contain 35 trees each. The yields 

 of Plots 2 and 6, from the fertilizer portion, therefore, are raised to 

 their corresponding values for plots of equivalent size. No fertilizers 

 were used on the cultural methods plots, until the season just past. 

 They were used then uniformly on all treatments, primarily because 

 the sod plot had gone two years with very little fruit, though all 

 the trees of these plots were plainly in need of something additional. 



In Table IV^ the sod plot shows a little higher annual yield than 

 the average of the checks in the fertilizer portion, this being due 

 to an exceptional crop that occurred on this plot in 1909, and from 

 which the plot has not yet recovered. In the next plot, we see the 

 effect of adding a mulch to the sod treatment. In this case, although 

 all the herbage that grows is left in the orchard, and a further ap- 

 plication of o tons of straw per acre is added to the plot, the aver- 

 age annual gain is only 22 bushels per acre. In the next plot, we 

 find that tillage and leguminous cover crops have given a fair in- 

 crease, amounting to lUO bushels per acre on the average. This, 

 however, is hardly to be compared with the 452-bushel increase 

 shown in the next case, which is obtained without tillage of any 

 kind, merely by the addition of a fertilizer that carries the elements 

 that are evidently lacking. 



In some quarters one would gather the impression that apples 

 can scarcely be grown without tillage. While we have nothing 

 against proper tillage as an orchard treatment, yet this and other 

 results from our experiments show that it is by no means indispens- 

 able in the production of first grade apples and that it can be readily 

 over-emphasized like anything else. There are many situations that 

 are otherwise v^ery well suited for apples, where tillage is decidely 

 inadvisable, and where, with proper management, the trees would 

 get along very much better without it. In such situations it is 

 undoubtedly preferable to sow the orchard down to some leguminous 

 crop as a permanent cover and follow the mulch system, properly 

 supplementing it with fertilization. For this purpose, hairy vetch 

 is doubtless preferable, on account of its relatively low moisture 

 draft, and its usually excellent staying powers when once well seeded 

 down. Whenever it is crowded out by the grasses, the orchard may 

 be re-plowed and again sowed to vetch, if the trees seem to require 

 it. 



DATA ON FERTILIZERS FROM OTHER EXPERIMENTS 



Thus far we have confined our attention to a single experiment, 

 primarily because the contrasts in it are so great that both the 

 existence and nature of the effects could scarcely fail to be recog- 

 nized. To go through each experiment in this way would be im- 

 possible in our present space, hence we have condensed into the 

 next two tables a statement derived from the results of six experi- 

 ments, including the one just discussed. These tables show the aver- 

 age effects of the different fertilizer elements, obtained in six ex- 

 periments, during periods covering from three to five years as indi- 

 cated. The effects are calculated as closely as possible and are ex- 

 pressed in terms of per cents, of benefit based on the normal per- 

 formance of the treated plots. The methods followed in making the 



