172 The Principles of Fruit-growing. 



which should be used by the orchard. Nursery 

 stock is known to be particularly hard upon land, 

 so much so that nurserymen seldom grow two crops 

 of fruit-tree stocks in succession upon the same 

 area; but this injury to the land is an impairment 

 of phj'sical condition rather than exhaustion of plant- 

 food. (See Chapter IV.) 



Sod may sometimes be allowed in an orchard if it 

 is closely pastured, but hay should never be cut. Sod 

 lands are not only drier than cultivated ground, but 

 they are favorite breeding places of insects. Borers 

 are particularly bad in grass land. No stone fruits 

 should ever be allowed to stand in sod, and the same 

 may be said of dwarf pears. Apples and standard 

 pears may now and then be seeded with safety, but 

 it is certainly true that, in general, fruit decreases in 

 proportion as sod increases. Very thrifty young 

 apple and pear orchards may sometimes be thrown 

 into bearing by seeding them down for a time, but 

 the sod should be broken up before the trees become 

 checked in vigor. The whole question as to whether 

 sod is hurtful or beneficial to an orchard is a local 

 one. The grower must determine it for himself. If 

 the orchard is in sod and is not doing well, the best 

 advice in general is to plow and till it. Certainly it 

 is better to make tillage the rule and sod the excep- 

 tion, than to start out with the intention of growing 

 an orchard in grass and cultivating it only when 

 forced to do so. It is better to pasture an orchard 

 than to allow the grass to grow at will, but close 

 pasturing can by no means take the place of tillage. 



