CULTURAL METHODS IN ORCHARDS 149 



stands preeminent for most orchard lands in this country. 

 Except for economic reasons or because of topography of 

 land or nature of its surface, it would usually be safe to follow 

 this practice. While the chief benefits of tillage are to the soil 

 itself, yet certain orchard pests are better controlled when 

 grass or weeds do not occupy the land between the trees. 

 Rodents and some of the injurious diseases and insects are less 

 prevalent in a cultivated orchard, for the stirring of the 

 ground desti'oys their natural harboring places. Weeds like- 

 wise are kept under control, avoiding a loss of soil-moisture 

 and plant -food materials to the trees. Tillage benefits the 

 soil for orchard production in the following ways: 



1. Maintains a better medium for the more desirable 

 soil flora. 



2. Increases nitrification. 



3. Makes more available the plant-food materials of 

 the soil. 



4. Creates and preserves a surface mulch which conserves 

 moisture.^ 



131. Cover-crops. — This term was first used in this con- 

 nection by L. H. Bailey in 1893 in Bulletin 61 of the New 

 York (Coraell) Experiment Station. It has its origin from 

 the fact that such crops are planted in middle or late sum- 

 mer and are designed to make a cover over the land as well 

 as a winter protection and to recover from the soil surplus 

 moisture, as well as readily available plant-food materials 

 and thus augment the maturity of the trees; also to pro- 

 duce on the land itself a green-manure crop for main- 

 taining fertility. 



The value of cover-crops in an orchard has been ques- 

 tioned by some authorities on the grounds that no special 

 benefit could be observed where they had been used. This 



1 See also Bailey, L. H. Principles of Fruit-Growing. 20th Ed. 

 p. 76. 1915. 



