46 THE CONNECTICUT POMOEOGICAL SOCIETY. 



with until the trees get to be six or seven years old, when 

 they have grown so large as to stop the growing of the crop 

 upon the same land. As soon as the orchard comes into bear- 

 ing it is seeded down into grass and allowed to remain so 

 permanently. You have heard a great deal lately about the 

 sod and mulch method of caring for orchards. I have been 

 somewhat amused at the outcry that has been raised at this 

 new discovery in horticulture. With us the sod and mulch 

 method is an old story. We southerners have been practicing 

 that method because we thought it was the easier way to grow 

 fruit, and there are some that have thought that the roots of 

 a bearing orchard should not be disturbed, and that you could 

 not put a plow and cultivator in without disturbing the roots 

 of a bearing orchard, and thus doing more harm than good. 



A Member : Wliat do you think about that yourself ? 



Mr. Lupton : Do I think the sod and mulch method the 

 best method ? I do not. As an evidence of that I have, within 

 the last ten days, signed a contract with the government at 

 Washington whereby they have agreed to come to my place 

 and establish an experimental orchard, in which the work is 

 to be carried on according- to original methods. Nor do I 

 advise the sod and mulch method, because I think disaster will 

 follow if you practice that method to its logical conclusion. 

 If it were not for the fact that most of our orchards were 

 young, we would already be suffering from this method of 

 cultivation. One of the serious drawbacks to the sod and 

 mulch method, to my mind, is the fact that the mulch 

 brings all of the roots of the tree near the surface, and the 

 tree suffers from dry weather in August and September, just 

 at the time when the tree needs moisture the most, in order 

 to carry its fruit to maturity. Another very serious draw- 

 back is the injury which is liable to result to the tree from 

 mice, rabbits and things of that sort. I observe in your list 

 of questions to be answered here to-day, "What is the best 

 protection against mice and rabbits for apples in sod mulch ?" 

 My answer to that question would be, take the sod nuilcli 

 away, and the rabbits and mice will probably leave. One of 

 my neighbors undertook the sod mulch method about four 

 vears agfo, and last vear he had four hundred twelve vear old 



