SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 143 



One of the chief advantages of the sod-mulch method, 

 as put forth by its promulgators, is, that it is a much less ex- 

 pensive method of caring for an orchard. The average 

 expense per acre of the two methods of management for four 

 years was $15.78 for the sod, $22.18 for tillage; a difference 

 of $6.40 in favor of the sod. It is true that the outgo has 

 been greater for the tilled plat, but the income has been 

 greater. The cost of production has been materially less for 

 the tilled trees, and that is the main point in the whole dis- 

 cussion. A cheap and easy way of growing apples is not 

 necessarily the most remunerative way. 



Leaving the yield of fruit for a brief consideration of 

 the effects of the two treatments on tree characters, we can 

 mention first, the leaf area. ]^>Ieasurements of leaf area were 

 not made, but the merest glance through the orchard would 

 show that there were more and larger leaves on the tilled 

 plat than on the sod-mulch plat. The experienced orchardist 

 knows that sparsity of foliage and smallness of leaf can indi- 

 cate but one thing, ill-health. 



So, too, there was something amiss with the color of the 

 leaves. It did not need a trained eye to detect the difference' 

 in color of foliage in the two plats. The dark and rich green 

 of the tilled trees could be noted a half mile from the orchard, 

 indicating an abundance of food and moisture and the heyday 

 of health, while from the same distance it could be seen that 

 the foliage of the sod-mulch trees was pale and sickly. Of 

 all the signs of superiority of the tilled trees, the color of the 

 foliage spoke most eloquently, and more than one man of the 

 hundreds who visited the orchard was heard to say, as his 

 eyes lighted on the contrasting colors of the sick and of the 

 well trees, "that satisfies me." The absence in color in the 

 leaves of the sod-mulch trees was due to a lack of chlorophill, 

 or leaf-green. Chlorophill is essential to .the assimilation of 

 plant-food, and when it is lacking the trees become starved 

 and stunted. The leaves on the sod-mulch trees assimied 

 their autumnal tints a week or ten da}s earlier than those on 

 the tilled trees and the foliage dropped that much earlier, thus 



