-10- 



one of the greatest handicaps to success of organizations established by 

 the apple industry to advertise and otherwise promote the sale and use of 

 apples." 



CUTTING HAY IN AH ORCHARD 



In an attempt to furnish some timely and up to date information on 

 the question, "How essential is the cutting of hay in an orchard?" the ivriter 

 asked William G. Colby, Research Agronomist, a fev/ pointed questions, as 

 follo7/s: "If hay is cut and left lay, are moisture or mineral elements con- 

 served?" "Is the cutting of a heavy gro^vth of grass (2 to 3 tons per acre) 

 more beneficial than the cutting of a light grov/th (1 to 2 tons per acre)? 

 ■*'Tffhich is influenced more, transpiration from the grass itself or evaporation 

 from the surface of the soil?" Dr. Colby replied as follows: 



"The questions you raised in your memorandum of May 28 concerning the 

 desirability of cutting grass in orchards raises a number of questions which 

 unfortunately cannot be answered positively one way or the other. There are 

 a number of factors involved whose relative importance is largely a matter of 

 personal opinion. Nevertheless, I offer the following suggestions in the hope 

 that they may be of some value. 



"In my previous report four years ago, I suggested that cutting grasses 

 after they have reached full maturity results in much reduced aftermath or 

 rowen grovrth. In the case of bluegrass and orchard grass, this stage will 

 be reached within a week or two. Some of the hay grass like timothy and red- 

 top will require another three or four weeks. Cutting late may result in 

 lower total dry matter yields for the v/hole season and ;7ill thereby reduce 

 both the mineral and moisture requirements. In reply to your question as to 

 whether or not moisture or mineral elements are conserved v/hen a heavy crop 

 of grass is cut and permitted to remain, I would like to say that in the case 

 of minerals, tliey are conserved so far as the grass sod is concerned, but it 

 is unlikely that this organic material vn.ll decompose and thereby release 

 these mineral elements in such form.s as they might be available to the trees. 

 The grass sod would undoubtedly take them up again. 



"With respect to moisture, it is probable that transpiration from the 

 grass itself will be more affected than evaporation from the surface of the 

 soil since any grass cover which produces two or three tons of hay to the acre 

 will have such a dense sod that little bare ground is exposed whether the grass 

 is cut or not. With a light vegetative cover (one to two tons per acre) it is 

 probable that cutting would have a temporary effect at least in reducing evap- 

 oration from bare ground surface. It would be my guess that transpiration 

 from the grass itself v;ould be considerably reduced with a heavy grass cover 

 if it was cut late and the hay allowed to remain. There are undoubtedly other 

 factors other than those I have named but v/hich lie more in the field of pom- 

 ology than in the field of agronomy. On the whole, I would be inclined to 

 favor cutting the grass in orchards if such xvore possible so far as time, 

 equipment and help are concerned. Cutting grass also tends to eliminate vreeds 

 and tends to favor sod forraing grasses over 'bunch' grasses. 



WBMS WILL NOT WIN THE T/AR 



