AN APPLE ORCHARD SURVEY OF WAYNE COUNTY, NEW YORK. 269 



but were left in timothy sod. The trees in sod are so badly weakened that 

 the land has been plowed and a start made toward renovating them. 



Methods of tillage. Orchards are commonly plowed in the fall. 

 This is frequently done so as to have less spring work. Early spring 

 plowing would seem to be much more desirable for an orchard. The 

 grass or weeds will hold the snow and leaves. 



In a few orchards the roots are so near the surface as to prevent 

 plowing. Such an orchard may be tilled with a spading harrow, disk or, 

 on sandy soils, with a spring-tooth harrow. 



The ideal system of tillage for most orchards is early plowing or 

 disking, followed by clean tillage until about July ist. Some kind of 

 a cover-crop is then sown. This cover-crop will produce humus to be 

 plowed under ; it furnishes a partial substitute for sod for the apples 

 to fall on ; it will help to remove surplus water during the latter part 

 of the season and thus cause the fruit to color better. Fig. 61 and the 

 frontispiece show orchards that are receiving this kind of treatment. 



Methods of sod treatment. Many of the orchards that are in sod are 

 pastured by cattle, hogs, sheep and horses. From some hay is cut ; 

 from others the grass is not removed, usually because there is not 

 enough to pay for cutting. A very few farmers are trying the so-called 

 mulch method of cutting the grass that grows in the orchard and 

 leaving it where it falls or throwing it under the trees. There were 

 not enough of them, nor had the work been continued long enough 

 so that a statistical report could be made. 



Table 12 shows the yields for 1902, with the different methods of sod 

 treatment. The number of orchards is not sufficient to give con- 

 clusive results. It would appear that pasturing with cattle is the 

 worst possible treatment for an orchard, a conclusion that is in 



TABLE 12. 



Yields in bushels for 1902, with various methods of sod treatment. Trees set before 



1880. 



