SOD MULCH vs. TILLAGE FOR APPLE OK< HAI;DS 805 







Hy this method organic matter and nitrogen is added to the soil 

 and, as a result of the deep dust mulch which is kept on the 

 orchard, the moisture is preserved. 



CULTURAL KXl'KK'I.MKNTS 



In 1903, the Xew York Agricultural Experiment Station at 

 Geneva, being interested in this debated subject, selected one of my 

 bearing Baldwin apple orchards in which to make a test of these 

 two methods of culture. 



The trees in this orchard were 27 years old at the beginning of 

 the experiment. They were 40 feet apart on the square system, or 

 27 trees to the acre. The orchard was ten rows wide and twenty- 

 seven long, thus making it nearly three times as long as broad, 

 and consisting of 9V2 acres. The soil is a fertile Dunkirk loam 

 about 1 inches deep, with a sandy to gravelly subsoil. The topog- 

 raphy of the orchard is very slightly rolling. 



The orchard was divided the long way into equal parts. In one- 

 half the sod mulch method was started, while in the other the til- 

 lage and cover crop system was used, as explained above. 



EFFECTS OF THE TWO METHODS 



The test had not been running two years, before my neighbors 

 began asking me if I was trying to kill half of my orchard. The 

 difference between the two halves was striking. As far as one 

 could see the orchard, he could tell exactly which rows were culti- 

 vated and which were in sod. The cultivated trees had a rich, 

 dark green foliage and a rank, vigorous growth, while the trees in 

 sod had a sickly yellow-green foliage and a short growth of wood. 

 When it came time to pick the crop, the difference was again as 

 striking. It did not take the pickers, who were picking by the 

 barrel, very long to find out that there was more fruit on the tilled 

 trees, thus allowing them to get a barrel with fewer moves of the 

 ladders. They noticed also that the barrels filled up more quickly 

 with the larger fruit on the tilled plat. When uninterested help 

 like this noticed the striking difference in the two plats, I felt sure 

 that it was an unbiased opinion. 



