SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 139 



of the sod-nuilch and in the words of Mr. Grant Hitchings, 

 who. as all know, has been one of the chief advocates of it. 

 Mr. Hitchings says : 



"This system gives one practically the whole Spring and 

 Sunnner to g;row and market other crops, while the orchard 

 is growing of its own accord a snpply of vegetable matter 

 for hnmns that all anthorities agree is so necessary for proper 

 soil maintenance. This means that you can do a good busi- 

 ness, without extra help, growing strawberries, green peas, 

 early potatoes, etc., and have the money for the fruit in the 

 Fall to swell your bank account instead of paying it out for 

 fertilizers and cultivation. Other advantages are that you 

 can drive through your orchard to spray, better on sod than 

 on cultivated soil, as the latter sometimes gets muddy, and 

 also washes badly on rolling ground. You can allow your 

 apples to mature fully on the trees, for, if they should fall on 

 the grassy mulch, nine-tenths of them would be marketable. 

 By making repeated gatherings the yield will be largely 

 increased and quality improved. With the mulch method you . 

 accumulate humus in your soil : with clean cultivation, you 

 burn it out or exhaust it.'' 



Reduced to its simplest terms this statement claims that 

 the sod-mulch method is a cheap and easy way of getting 

 apples. In fact, the chief claim made by most of the sod- 

 mulch advocates is for the cheapness of the method. If the 

 reasoning of the sod-mulchers be put in the form of a syllo- 

 gism, the major premise is : "Cheap methods give most profits 

 in apple growing;" the minor premise: "The sod-mulch 

 method is a cheap one." Conclusion : "Therefore, the sod- 

 mulch method is the most profitable one." Never was there 

 a greater fallacy than that expressed in the major premise, 

 that "Cheap methods give most profits," and it is one upon 

 which thousands of agriculturists found their practice in 

 growing other crops, usually to their loss and often to their 

 ruin. It is not cheap methods that give most profits ; it is 

 low cost of production that gives profits. Rut do they show 

 that it lowers the cost of production of a bushel of apples? 

 There is only a change of a letter between cJicap and cheat. 



