THE SOIL 73 



that apples from sod orchards have a higher 

 color than those from cultivated blocks. Maybe 

 so. About ten years ago, C. G. Woodbury, at 

 that time of the Horticultural Department of 

 Purdue University, Experiment Station, insti- 

 tuted a series of orchard experiments to test 

 out the various systems of cultivation. This 

 series is probably one of the most comprehen- 

 sive demonstrations of the sort that has been 

 undertaken and the results at this date are in- 

 teresting for many reasons. The orchard in 

 which the work was done, and is still being 

 done, is located near Laurel, Indiana, on hill- 

 sides typical of much of the hill land in south- 

 ern Indiana and Ohio. The land was originally 

 cleared of a heavy growth of timber about the 

 year 1840 and from 1848 until 1871 it was 

 farmed with a more or less irregular rotation 

 of corn, wheat, oats and pasture. In 1871 it was 

 plowed and sowed to oats, timothy and blue- 

 grass with the purpose of obtaining a blue-grass 

 sod. It remained in sod, used for pasture, until 

 the orchard was planted and the experiment 

 begun in 1910. Without going into details re- 

 garding this experiment I shall only say that 

 the two plots which have given the greatest 

 return and which have developed the largest 

 trees are those under clean cultivation and 

 under a system of heavy straw mulch. 



Unfortunately, neither of these systems is 



