SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 149 



Auchter orchard was selected as being typical of Western 

 New York conditions, and the results obtained may therefore 

 be regarded as especially applicable to this region. But there 

 are peculiarities of soil and location which might change them 

 even in Western New York. It is a simple matter for an 

 orchardist to plow up a part of a sodded orchard and culti- 

 vate it for a few years ; or as easy for one who has a tilled 

 orchard to lay a part of it down to grass, cutting the grass as 

 a mulch, and in a few years he can see what happens. We 

 want more experimenters among fruit-growers and these are 

 good experiments to try when a man becomes dissatisfied with 

 the crops of apples he is getting. 



The opportunity of giving another warning cannot be 

 lost. The sod-mulch method is heralded as the cheap-and- 

 easy method. But some men cannctt stand cheap-and-easy 

 methods. If they begin by applying it to tillage, they are 

 likely to look for a cheap-and-easy way of planting, the 

 Stringfellow way for instance, a cheap-and-easy way of prun- 

 ing and a cheap-and-easy way of spraying. Some cheap-and- 

 easy growers will disembarrass themselves with the necessity 

 of taking care of their trees at all, and in the end will wind 

 up as ornery, no-account apple growers. I do not mean to 

 say that all will, but some of theni will. Ypu remember, no 

 doubt, in Pilgrim's Progress how Bunyan's characters had 

 tlieir natural associates. Thus the young lady whose name 

 was Dull chose as her companions. Simple, Sloth, Linger- 

 after-lust. Slow-pace, No-heart and Sleepy-head. Cheap- 

 and-easy has his natural associates and they are a bad lot. 

 Take care how you cultivate their acquaintance. Better keep 

 them under a sod-mulch. 



There is an argument for tillage to be made from the 

 standpoint of sentiment. The sentiment of the orchard is 

 worth something, both because there is more than the money- 

 making side to apple growing, and because a man who puts 

 some sentiment in his vocation succeeds best. "Where no 

 pleasure is, no profit is taken," and "The labor we delight in 

 physics pain." My argument is, that when a man plants an 

 apple orchard, he should materialize his mind and his soul 



