44 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



the grower continually grasses over his land and leaves it, it is a 

 practice which has caused this eastern part of the country the 

 loss of a great deal of prestige in the markets. 



I believe that sod culture is responsible for a good deal of 

 the decline in our prestige in New York. The State of New 

 York has spent a great deal of money in looking into the causes 

 of this decline, and when they got through it was all included 

 in one big word, "neglect."' And that included neglect of 

 tillage, neglect of pruning, neglect of spraying, and neglect of 

 all those things which are essential to be done by those who 

 practice apple culture and expect to be successful in the enter- 

 prise. 



So I say, that sod culture has caused this eastern country 

 the loss of much of its prestige, and I believe it is going to 

 cause the central west the loss of its prestige in a few years. In 

 fact I have been through some of the great apple orchards out 

 there, and with the neglect I have noticed, and sod culture, 

 I have seen many of the trees looking as though they had 

 seen their best days — so that I believe that sod culture out 

 there, in a short time, will cause some of those apple growers 

 the loss of their standing in the markets. 



So that I warn you against sod culture. Now there are 

 other methods by which the vegetable matter of the soil may 

 be furnished economically, and I would develop right here the 

 importance of the cover crop in the orchard. Its purpose is 

 simply to maintain and increase the vegetable matter, or vege- 

 table contents of the soil. After the cultivating season is 

 passed, the cover crop is sown and it is allowed to grow until the 

 fall months, and during the winter months, and it is plowed 

 under the next spring. It is turned under at the same time of 

 year when the tillage begins again. 



Now there are two general classes of cover crops : one the 

 great group, which not only furnishes vegetable matter to the 

 soil, but which through the agency of these little organisms 

 called bacteria have the power of taking nitrogen that is in the 

 soil, and in the air of the soil, and converting it into use for 

 the plants ; into a form for the plants to use. Such plants as 

 the clovers, beans, peas, and the vetches, and all such plants 

 have this power. They have little nodules on the roots, and 

 in these little nodules bacteria live, and they have the power 



