SOD MULCH vs. TILLAGE FOR APPLE ORCHARDS 



W. I). ArciiTEB, BARNARD, MONROE Co., ~N. Y. 



INTRODUCTION 



Orchardists have heard and read a great 

 deal in the past ten to twenty years about 

 the best manner of handling the soil in 

 their apple orchards. Many different 

 methods have been advocated. Thus, we 

 have heard sod, sod mulch, sod and pas- 

 ture, clean tillage, tillage and cover crop, 

 alternate tillage, and partial tillage all 

 praised and condenined alike. As a re- 

 sult, many fruit growers have been just a 

 little doubtful as to which method really 



was the best. From my standpoint, I cannot see any reason for 

 an argument in a case where all sides may be right. For instance, 

 one man may have an orchard on such a steep and rocky hillside 

 that it would be folly for him to try to cultivate the soil ; another 

 man may have an orchard on a hillside a little too steep to allow of 

 complete cultivation, but he could practice partial cultivation 

 that of plowing and working about the trees with a strip of sod in 

 the center of the rows to hold the soil from washing; while still 

 another man with a level-lying orchard will usually find that 

 tillage and cover crops is the best method of culture to use. 



SOD MULCH VS. TILLAGE AND COVER CROPS 



As most of the orchards in New York State are easily adapted 

 to either the sod mulch system or tillage and cover crops, and 

 since these are the two principal systems about which so much 

 is heard, I will give my experience with these methods only. 



The main object in orchard culture is the preservation of 

 moisture. Water constitutes from 82 to 89 per cent of the apple. 

 Likewise, the twigs and leaves have considerable moisture in, 

 them. As a result, if the soil moisture is lost, the effect of it is 

 generally seen in the small size of the apples. This is commonly 



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