CULTIVATING vs, CROPPING ORCHARDS. 





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A B n 



Fig. 1596 — Trees in sod and in cultivated ground. 



XPERIMENTS have been con- 

 cluded in various parts of the 

 Continent by experiment sta- 

 tions to settle the question whe- 

 ther an orchard should or should not be 

 kept cultivated. The result is in favor 

 of clean cultivation unless in exceptional 

 instances. At Cornell it was shown that 

 while the roots of apple trees in sod were 

 at the surface, in cultivated land they 

 were at least 8 inches below the surface. 

 At Nebraska the effect on growth was 

 shown very clearly. The report says : 



" Trees in cultivated ground suflFered notice- 

 ably less from the drought and hot winds of 

 summer than those in sod ground. The foli- 

 age was darker and more vigorous in appear- 

 ance, and there was no yellowing and drop- 

 ping of the leaves nor wilting during hot 

 windy days, both of which occurred with 

 uncultivated trees. Apples from cultivated 

 land averaged nearly 14 per cent larger in 

 weight than those from pasture land and over 

 17 per cent largei than those from mowed 

 land." 



An Illinois station report also shows 

 marked results from clean cultivation. 



" In 1890 three rows each of Ben Davis and 

 (ilrimes Golden apples were planted, the trees 

 being set 15 feet apart each way. These were 

 divided into 4 plats, the first being given 

 clean cultivation and the second, third, and 

 fourth being cropped with oats, clover, and 

 blue grass, respectively. The same treat- 

 ment was continued each year after plant- 

 ing. The trees grown on the grass plats 

 were decidedly inferior to those grown on the 



cultivated plat as regards height, diameter of 

 trunk, vigor, and abundance of foliage, etc. 

 For instance, in the case of the Ben Davis 

 trees the diameter of the trunks 1 foot above 

 the surface of the soil was about twice as 

 great in the case of the cultivated plats as in 

 case of that in grass. Similarly the height of 

 the trees in the two plats averaged 18| and 

 11 feet, and the diameter of the tops 15J and 

 8J feet, respectively. In the growth and 

 vigor of trees, the clover plat ranked next 

 after the cultivated plats, and the oats plat 

 ranked between the clover and blue grass 

 plat. An examination of the root systems of 

 trees on the dififerent plats also showed the 

 superiority of clean cultivation, especially 

 over cropping with oats and grass. In the 

 cultivated plat the root system was compact 

 and reached a considerable depth, while in the 

 oats and grass plats the roots grew shallow 

 and ranged widely from the tree. There was 

 also a diflference in the n:oisture content of 

 the soil in the different plats. In the latter 

 part of October, 1897, the average percentages 

 of moisture in the first 27 inches of soil of the 

 various plats were for the cultivated and corn 

 plats 12, for the clover plat 10, and for the 

 oats and grass plants 8. The effect of the 

 different treatments is seen in Fig. 1596 which 

 shows a typical tree from each of the 4 plats. 

 The injury caused by growing grass in 

 young orchards is shown very emphatically 

 by an experiment conducted at the Utah 

 Station. Parts of an orchard were seeded to 

 alfalfa, timothy, clover, and a mixture of 

 timothy and clover soon after the trees were 

 set, and other parts were cultivated, all being 

 irrigated alike. Over half of the trees in the 

 grass plats died and were reset twice, while 

 the cultivated trees lived and grew well. It 

 is not to be expected that growing grass in 

 young orchards is always as injurious as it 

 proved to be at the Utah Station, yet the 

 reported experiences of fruit growers and 

 experimenters everywhere show the import- 



