42 



Herbert W. CoUingwood, Editor Rural New Yorker, who 

 :spoke on 



CULTIVATION VS. TURF CULTURE 



"I am reminded at this time of the congregation that 

 was asked whether they would rather have their minister 

 read his sermon or talk without notes. They finally decided 

 that it would be better for him to read it for then he would 

 know when he got through. 



"I am going to take some positions that possibly your 

 experienced growers will not back up. I want to make a 

 fair statement of the difference between the two systems 

 rof culture and would present as fairly as I can both meth- 

 ods. I do not think we can say that either one is not a sen- 

 sible method of fruit growing. I want to make it just as 

 clear as I can that what I am talking about is this method 

 of keeping a thick mulch on the soil all the time. The 

 trouble with many of our sod orchards is that people actual- 

 Jy expect three times as much from the soil as they have any 

 right to. They expect to get dead wood, hay, then to turn 

 in stock ,and last of all to get a good crop of fruit. Most of 

 the arguments against the sod method are based upon such 

 conditions. I do not want to be understood as saying that 

 you can raise a high grade of apples if you take everything 

 out of the soil and put nothing back. It cannot be done. 

 You must leave the hay and everything in the orchard so 

 that it will go back into the soil. People will say that we 

 •^don't want the small sized fruit. I think we do. I think 

 the demand in the family trade is for average sized fruit 

 .and to my mind the best trade is that of the family. 



"Now, what do we mean by 'cultivation' and 'turf.' 

 By cultivation I mean an orchard that is ploughed and culti- 

 vated several times each season with some shallow work- 

 ing tool. By turf I mean a good orchard seeded to grass 

 •sod, where the grass is left in the orchard, either pastured 

 or cut, and left on the ground. 



"There is a fair place for each method. It will not do to 

 say that you cannot grow fruit without cultivation, because 

 a good many of us are doing so. I know that some of the 

 cultivators say that in time we will be forced to turn up our 

 sod and cultivate, but it doesn't look so now. I would not 

 recommend mulching for all situations, because I know that 

 • on some soils and in some situations cultivation is better. 



