CHAPTER III 



ORCHARD SOIL MANAGEMENT METHODS AND MOISTURE 

 CONSERVATION 



Most cultural practices which involve the orchard soil are for the 

 purpose of influencing more or less directly its moisture supply or its 

 productivity. It is well, therefore, at this point to examine somewhat 

 carefully into the ways in which the several cultural practices commonly 

 employed in the fruit plantation affect the water content of its soil, 

 for though they must be considered also as they influence soil chemistry, 

 they concern water supply even more directly. In general farm practice, 

 certain soil treatments are given with the purpose of reducing, at least 

 temporarily, the water content of the soil. In the orchard, however, 

 excess moisture is taken care of by surface run-off and by natural or 

 artificial underdrainage if the orchard has been well located. The 

 efficiency of orchard soil management methods, therefore, is to be judged 

 by the way in which they conserve moisture rather than by the way in 

 which they dissipate it, though in some sections there may be occasion 

 to dry out the soil in the fall for the purpose of hastening maturity. 



Orchard Soil Management Methods Defined and Described. — 

 The commonly recognized and more or less distinct methods of soil 

 management in the orchard may be listed as follows: (1) clean culture, 

 (2) clean culture with cover crop, (3) artificial mulch, (4) sod mulch, 

 (5) sod, (6) intercropping. There are almost endless combinations 

 and forms of treatments intermediate between any two of these methods; 

 consequently it is nearly impossible to differentiate clearly between them. 

 For instance, clean cultivation may be practiced in the orchard until 

 the first of August. If the land remains fairly clean and free from weed 

 growth during the fall and winter months, the orchard is said to be 

 under the clean culture method of management. If no cover crop were 

 seeded, but a heavy growth of weeds comes in and serves as a fall and 

 winter cover, the orchard is practically under a cover crop method of 

 management, though many growers would refer to it as a clean culture 

 orchard! Similarly, if the land were seeded down to bluegrass or alfalfa 

 or some other forage crop, the method of soil management would be 

 classed as sod, sod mulch or intercrop, depending upon what disposition 

 is made of the vegetation produced between the trees. If the vegetation 

 were cut and removed from the land, the orchard would be said to be 

 under an intercrop system of management, but if it were pastured off 

 by sheep the management probably would be called a sod system, though 



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