196 POMOLOGY 



In a later report,^ an additional experiment is recorded 

 which confirms the earlier findings on the type of soil in 

 southern Ohio. Other features of interest are also included. 



In 1914, a twenty-year-old orchard of Rome Beauty and 

 Ben Davis apples which were very low in vitality and en- 

 tirely non-productive was secured for the purpose of exper- 

 imentation. Two rows of twelve trees each constituted a 

 plot, the one having the fertilizer distributed in a circle 

 beneath the tree, and the other having it applied over the 

 entire tree square ("all-over method"). A check or buffer 

 row was maintained between each two plots. Half the or- 

 chard was cultivated and a cover-crop sown amiually, and 

 the other half was put under the grass-mulch system, the 

 fertilizer treatments being the same on both sections. There 

 was no material difference in yield between the "circle" 

 and the "all-over," method of distributing the fertilizer,, 

 but the latter encouraged a strong growth of vegetation 

 for mulching purposes. 



The conclusions of this experiment are striking in several 

 particulars, notably in showing that fertilizer will produce 

 equally prompt and valuable results in both tilled and 

 mulched orchards in that section, an end not secured, under 

 a number of other conditions, as discussed later in this chap- 

 ter. Also tillage alone will not suffice to produce maximum 

 crops on the soil in question. 



If the unfertilized grass-mulch plot is taken as the check, 

 the following increases obtain for a five-year average: 



1 Ohio Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 339. 1920. 



