82 



ORCHARD CULTURE 



use of clovers in seeding down and these do not as a rule persist 

 very long in the orchard sod. 



4. There is less trouble in cultivated orchards from insects,, 

 notably borers and curculio. Take the example of a young 

 orchard in which many trees were found to be attacked by borers. 

 It was a cultivated orchard, but several sections of various sizes 

 had been allowed to grow up to grass and weeds; that is, had 

 become sod sections through poor cultivation. Without exception 



the trees attacked by borers 

 were in these weedy patches. 

 With the large number of in- 

 sects which winter either in 

 the soil or in trash upon the 

 ground it could hardly be 

 otherwise than that they 

 should nourish best under a 

 management which never dis- 

 turbs the soil and which 

 keeps a constant supply of 

 litter to hide in. The curculio 

 is especially happy in a sod 

 orchard and the "red-bug" 

 seems equally so. 



5. There is less danger 

 from mice. This is another 

 argument which it is difficult 

 for the sod-culture advocate 

 to disprove ; in fact he usually 

 frankly admits it and puts 

 some sort of guard about his trees to protect them. An orchard 

 in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, may be cited as an illustra- 

 tion. The owner left some grass in one corner of his orchard 

 one winter and the next spring every tree in the acre and a 

 quarter was completely girdled by mice. They were all bridge 

 grafted and not a tree was lost. When visited ten years after, 

 each tree stood on stilts, as shown in Figure 36. But one might 

 not be so fortunate as this in every case and even with protectors 



FIG. 36. A tree girdled by mice and saved 

 by bridge grafting. This is entirely practical 

 and any good grafter can do the work. 



