36 N. H. AGR. EXPERIMENT STATION. [Bulletin 153 



SUMMARY OF THREE SEASONS' WORK. 



Table No. 21 and the accompanying chart, No. 6, give a summary of the 

 average production of each tree in the various plots for the seasons of 1908, 

 1909, and 1910. No attempt is made to total these results as the author does 

 not believe that those of 1908 are of any value except for purposes of compari- 

 son with the results of later seasons, while those of 1909 are so small as to 

 possess no real significance in this study of fruit bud formation, when used 

 jor purposes of comparison between individual plots. These figures are, how- 

 ever, of extreme importance in comparing one season with another. The 

 Baldwin is notoriously accredited with the habit of bearing in alternate years. 

 If, therefore, the treatments of cultivation and fertilization accorded one or 

 several of the plots under experimentation, affect one way or another this 

 habit of alternate bearing, light of considerable value will be thrown upon the 

 subject of this investigation. 



Moreover, in a very decided manner, this summary of the three years' 

 work indicates a most startling effect in increased productiveness under culti- 

 vation, cultivation and cover crop, and cultivation, cover crop and fertiliza- 

 tion. A glance at chart No. 6 will show that in 1908 the sod plot produced 

 more apples per tree than any other plot in the orchard. This plot must there- 

 fore have had advantages at least equal to and probably superior to those of 

 other plots in the orchard, but immediately after cultivation, fertilization, and 

 cover cropping were practiced in other plots in the orchard, the production 

 of the sod plot fell far behind. 



Climatic Conditions. 



No unusual peculiarities of temperature or rainfall have marked any of the 

 easons of the experiment. Winter temperatures, covering of snow, blossom- 

 ing period and times of rainfall have, without exception, been reasonably 

 favorable for the development of good crops of fruit. 



Acknowledgements. 



The writer takes pleasure in acknowledging gratefully the cheerful and 

 efficient assistance of Prof. W. H. Wicks, Mr. T. G. Bunting and Prof. W. H. 

 Wolff in collecting the data and carrying out many of the details of the experi- 

 ments. Professor Wicks, now professor of Horticulture in the University of 

 Idaho, assisted in 1908-09; Mr. Bunting in 1909, and Professor Wolff in 1910. 



