BULLETi:^ No. 209. 



DEPARTMENT OF POMOLOGY. 



EXPERIMENTS IN SOIL MANAGEMENT AND 

 FERTILIZATION OF ORCHARDS. 



BY J. K. SHAW, 



The Old Station Orchard. ^ 



The orchard experiment here reported was begun in 1890 and has con- 

 tinued to the present time. It is, so far as the writer's knowledge goes, 

 the oldest orchard fertihzer experiment in America, and perhaps in the 

 world. The arrangement of the orchard is shown on page 34. It lies on 

 a gentle western slope and 'is bordered on the west and north bj' grassland. 

 To the east and south the slope is steeper and covered by a heavy growth 

 of forest trees. The orchard and forest are separated by an open space 

 Avhich in the writer's judgment is sufficient to prevent any injurious 

 influence on the orchard trees from root trespass, though there may 

 possibly have been an injurious effect from shading. This, however, is 

 distributed quite evenly over the whole orchard. 



The soil is a strong and retentive gravelly loam underlain by a fairly 

 compact subsoil. It is well suppHed with moisture. A ditch above the 

 orchard prevents surface wash from the forest slope above. It was origi- 

 nally somewhat overmoist, especially on plot 3, which is slightly lower 

 than plots 4 and 5. This may have influenced in some degree the growth 

 and yield of this plot, but in the wi'iter's judgment any such influence is 

 small even if it exists at all. Before the trees were planted tile drains were 

 laid to care for surplus water. 



• This experiment was planned and started by the late Dr. C. A. Goessmann as director and 

 chemist of the State Experiment Station. For most of its life it has been under the direction of 

 Dr. Wm. P. Brooks. The details of management and recording of data have been in the hands 

 of several different men, recently of E. F. Gaskill and R. L. Coffin. The WTiter is responsible for 

 the tabulation and interpretation of the data. 



