SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 137- 



he is ever after cut off from the blessed privilege of sod- 

 mulching it. Still further, in planting the above orchard, 

 some extremists say, do not cut the sod by digging a hole 

 for the tree, but cut the tree, lop off roots and branches and 

 stick the stub in a hole in the sod made by a crow-bar. This,, 

 however, is sod-mulch culture plus that silly dementia of 

 juodem horticulture known as the Stringfellow method. 



Sod-mulch culture is applicable only to the apple. The 

 peach, the plum, the cherry; the orange, the olive, the lemon; 

 the grape, the gooseberry, the currant; corn, potato, and the 

 pumpkin ; the sunflower, the geranium and the forget-me- 

 not ; all these and all of their kind need tillage. The apple 

 alone wants a soil compacted and held together with the mat- 

 ted roots of living grass. 



Sod-mulch culture is a new method of orchard-manage- 

 ment. We have grown apples for a long, long time — cen- 

 turies — and a good many of the orchards were in sod, but 

 the virtues of the sod and the mulch therefrom were not dis- 

 covered until the beginning of the twentieth century. So,. 

 too, this method is not a universal one — unknown and 

 unpracticed outside of a few of the Eastern States. Oregon, 

 California, and Colorado, though they produce apples that sur- 

 pass the world in many respects, and though they have all 

 kinds of soil, and though their various soils are both irrigated 

 and farmed as dry lands, yet the sod-mulch culture has not 

 foimd a place in any of their commercial orcharding districts. 



\\c can understand the experiment to be discussed, better,, 

 if we take a brief glance at the philosophy of tillage and 

 that of sod-mulch. The objects of tillage are so well set 

 forth by one of the leading living authorities on the subject. 

 Professor F. H. King, that I give them without a change of 

 a single word. 



*'(1) To secure a thorough surface uniformity of the 

 field, so that an equally vigorous growth may take i^lace over 

 the entire area. 



"(2) To develop and maintain a large eft'ective depth 

 of soil, so that there shall be ample living room, an extensive 



