40 



N. H. Agricultural Experiment Station [Bulletin 257 



of low rainfall cultivation has been the only practical system, while in 

 other regions, notably New England, the nuilch system has been very 

 successful. Most New Hampshire orchards are maintained in sod, 

 but many orchardists cultivate young trees and may occasionally plow 

 up and re-seed a bearing orchard. 



It has been customary to think of the cultivation system in which a 

 cover crop is sown and plowed under annually as one in which the 

 organic matter of the soil is well maintained. Recent experiments 

 seem to demonstrate, however, that the losses in organic matter are 

 very serious when the soil is cultivated and that in an orchard where 

 shade interferes with growth of the cover crop, organic matter may 

 not be maintained by this system as well as under sod mulch. The 



23.2 



s 



/o 



// 



/z 



7 6 9 



Farm Number 



Fig. 10. Man hours per acre used in soil management operations 



The proportion of cultivated orchards was highest on Farm 4. There too, 



because of liberal fertilization, the grass on sod plots required mowing 



twice each season. Farms 6 to 12 used sod mulch exclusively, but on Farm 



12, which is devoted to apples almost exclusively, marginal time during slack 



periods was used to cut and haul extra mulch from lowland meadows. 



maintenance of organic matter has a very important bearing on the 

 moisture holding capacity of the soil which in turn is of extreme im- 

 portance to the orchard. TTiidor the nndch system, especially if ad- 

 ditional material from outside sources is applied, the total organic 

 content may be kept high ; but the material, of course, is not as well in- 

 corporated in the soil as is the case when the orchard is tilled. 



On all farms for the thi'ce years a total of 8,190 hours, oi- 21.0 per 

 cent, of all labor prioi" to hai'vest. was used in cultivating, mowing aiul 

 mulching (Table 13). Farms 8 and 6 did very little work on moisture 

 control, while Farm 4 used over 38 per cent, of the labor prior to har- 

 vest on these operations. 



Since it is impossible to secure an accurate check on the efficiency 

 of the culture, the discussion must be largely descriptive. 



The weighted average man labor requirement in soil culture was 9.4 

 hours per acre, with a range of from 1.4 to 23.2 hours. Farm 4 with 

 the highest labor requirement cultivated a large part of the orchard 

 and did considerable work at slack times in fitting up a small addi- 



