CULTURAL METHODS IN ORCHARDS 143 



the other in which the land remains permanently in sod. 

 A number of variations of both these methods are in use. If 

 a grower has achieved success with one or the other, he often 

 becomes prejudiced against the other systems. 



125. Terms defined. — Sod culture describes any system 

 of soil management wherein the trees are grown in sod 

 without tillage of any kind, or without mulching the trees 

 with litter. The grass may remain without cutting or it 

 may be cut and removed from the orchard or left lying on 

 the ground. If the grass or litter is insufficient at least 

 partially to kill out the growth beneath the trees, it must 

 still be termed sod culture. This system, like all the fol- 

 lowing, may or may not involve the use of manure or arti- 

 ficial fertilizers and pasturing with stock. The grass mulch 

 system consists in placing a mulch of litter (grass, straw, 

 hay, corn-stalks, or other material) beneath the trees, usually 

 extending it a little beyond the drip of the branches. As 

 the trees become large, material must be brought in from 

 outside the orchard in order properly to mulch them. A 

 cleared or bare area should be maintained immediately 

 about the tree trunks as a fire break and to lessen injury 

 from rodents. Cleaii tillage involves the plowing or disking 

 of the land in the late fall or spring and tilling at intervals 

 of about two weeks throughout the early summer, usualty 

 until the first or middle of July. After tillage is stopped, 

 the ground lies bare until the following spring, hence no 

 vegetation is turned into the soil. The tillage and cover-crops 

 system is similar to the former, but in addition to the tillage 

 a cover-crop is sown at the time of the last cultivation and 

 the crop is plowed under in the late fall or spring. Instead 

 of sowing a crop, the land may be allowed to grow up to 

 weeds. Inter-cropping, which is often followed in young 

 orchards, refers to the growing of any crop (usually a culti- 

 vated one) between the tree rows for the purpose of harvest- 



