53 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



ing the wormy apples to sheep had to be adopted if the 

 fruit was to he kept free from worms. Moreover, when 

 the pasturage withered up, in the dry weather of late sum- 

 mer and early autumn, as it usually did, the tree was left 

 without moisture at a time when it was especially needed 

 for the best development of the fruit. The fertility of the 

 soil was useless without moisture to make it available to 

 the tree. 



Tillage. — The next development along this line was the 

 adoption of a radically different plan of managing the apple 

 orchard, which is one of the features of the new apple cul- 

 ture, namely, thorough tillage during the principal grow- 

 ing season followed by the use of some crop to cover the 

 ofround during fall and winter to which the term "cover 

 crop" is now commonly applied. 



I believe that tilling apple orchards, not primarily to 

 kill weeds, but because the tillage is good for the trees, 

 was first practiced systematically by orchardists who had 

 received considerable training in the management of 

 nursery trees. Year after year they saw in the nursery 

 innumerable object lessons which showed the great benefit 

 of tillage to the trees. One gentleman, who is the proprie- 

 tor of some of the largest and best apple orchards to be 

 found in western New York, and who was formerly engaged 

 in the nursery business, has for years practiced clean culti- 

 vation in his apple orchards with excellent results. But 

 whatever may have been the origin of the practice, it 

 gained little headway among the orchardists of the State 

 till it was advocated persistently by such men as Bailey 

 and Roberts of Cornell University and by influential writers 

 for the horticultural press. As a result of this campaign 

 for tillage and cover crops, about five years ago a few of 

 the more progressive fruit growers began to till their 

 orchards. Their neighbors were not slow to see the good 

 results which usually followed where the work was pro- 

 perly done, and consequently within the last three or four 

 years and especially within the last year, the number of 

 cultivated orchards has increased largely. 



I have said that the plan of tilling the orchard is radi- 

 cally different from the other methods of treatment which 



