•144 ^^^^^ CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



seriously cutting short the growing season of the grassed 

 trees and thereby impairing their future vitahty. 



The new wood produced by the grassed trees tells a simi- 

 lar tale of injury. It was not half that produced on the tilled 

 trees; the twigs were not plump and well filled out; there 

 were fewer new shoots ; and the wood of the mulched trees 

 lacked the clear, bright, rich brownish tint of health, so that 

 in mid-winter one could pick out mulched trees and tilled 

 trees by the color of the wood. 



The most remarkable differences to be noted in the quali- 

 ties of the fruit were in size and color. The size of the fruit 

 averaged considerably larger on the tilled plats. The greater 

 yield in the tilled plat of the orchard must be attributed to 

 the increased size of the fruit rather than to an increase in 

 number of fruits. This statement is based upon the facts 

 that the trees in the two plats bore equal quantities of blos- 

 soms and about equal numbers of fruit, but the size of the 

 tilled fruit was much greater. 



As to color, there is no question but that the fruit from 

 the sod-mulch plat is much more highly colored than that 

 from the tilled plat. This difference varies with the season. 

 Mulched fruit ripens from a week to two weeks earlier than 

 tilled fruit. If the variety and the season is such that the 

 tilled fruit can remain on the trees some days after the 

 mulched fruit must be picked, the difference in color is much 

 less. The lighter color of the tilled fruit is readily and clearly 

 explained. The coloring matter in the skin of the apple, like 

 that in the leaves, consists of chlorophill, or leaf-green. The 

 coloring of ripening fruit is due to the changing of the chlo- 

 rophill of the skin into a red-colored substance, just as in the 

 leaf it changes into the colored substances of autumnal tints. 

 Therefore, since the sod fruit ripens earlier, it colors earlier 

 and in most seasons better. 



The abnormally high color of the sod fruit in this orchard 

 is one of the most marked signs of the deleterious effect of 

 the so'd on the trees. Every man of experience has observed 

 that when a tree is starved, stunted, girdled or injured, its 

 foliage and its fruit take on high color. Radiant color in 



