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ORCHARD SOIL TILIAGE IN ITB7 B NGLAIJD 



Fifty years ago, plowing and continued cultivation of apple orchard 

 soils in Nev/ England v/ere fairly commoji practices. Today the Sod-Mulch system, 

 which is subject to iTieiny modifications, has been adopted by practically all 

 of our commercial grovrers. The latter system tends to encourage good yields 

 of well colored fruit. It also facilitates the penetration of rainfall and 

 thus prevents, to a large extent, the erosion which was so common in clean 

 cultivated orchards. 



Our better orchard soils have a sloping or rolling topography and 

 a fairly high elevation. Under these conditions, in the absence of contour 

 planting, any extensive tillage is certain to encourage both sheet erosion 

 and gullying. But if mulch material is applied around the trees in sufficient 

 quantity to smother the grftss more or less completely as far out as the tips 

 of the branches, ideal conditions for tree growth and production are main- 

 tained without danger of erosion. Furthermore, the tremendous demands of an 

 apple tree for water are better satisfied if rainwater penetrates v/here it 

 falls instead of flowing to a lower level, as occurs when a heavy rain falls 

 on a bare soil. 



Another advantage of the Sod-Mulch ^stem over plowing and cultiva- 

 tion lies in the maintenance of a smoother orchard floor. This makes it 

 easier to travel through the orchard with a power sprayer or a truckload 

 of apples. Plowing leaves dead furrows which are difficult to level off 

 even v/ith a disc harrow. 



Many of our orchardists are broadcasting a complete fertilizer be- 

 tween the trees, in addition to supplying the nitrogen needs of the trees 

 through a ring application of nitrogenous fertilizer. This practice, of 

 course, adds to the reservoir of organic matter since it encourages a better 

 grovTth of the existing cover. It nay also bring about some replacement of 

 plants in the cover, as for example, clovers in place of grasses. Since the 

 supply of organic matter increases frora year to year under this system if of- 

 fers an opportunity to disc once or twice, in spring, the strip between the 

 trees and thereby bring about partial decomposition of the organic matter. 

 This releases nitrates and other mineral elements for the tree and eliminates 

 for a brief period the competition betv/een the tree and the cover crop. The 

 tree is thus stimulated at a critical season, and later in the summer when 

 tree (_^rowth should be completed, the cover crop has reestablished itself, and 

 it proceeds to take up the nitrates which the tree no longer needs. 



Partial cultivation of the surface six inches and incorporation of 

 some of the organic matter into the surface soil offer these additional ad- 

 vantages i Soil aeration is improved. Compacting, due to heavy machinery, is 

 corrected. And, in case the soil needs lime, an opportunity is offered to 

 work it dovm beneath the surface. The magic influence of organic matter on 

 the surface of the orchard soil and in the surfact layer are nov^ so apparent 

 to the New England apple grovrers that plowing and clean cultivation are becom- 

 ing obsolete practices. 



