MANURES 109 



when a grower has only to ascertain what treatment succeeds 

 best on his own land. Perhaps the oft-repeated, and more often 

 mistaken cry of the antagonism between theory and practice, 

 is the reason why growers are so prejudiced against experiments, 

 mistaking experiment for theory, and the blind observance of 

 traditions for practice. The spirit of investigation, when 

 properly directed, can never fail to advantage the investigator, 

 and, if this spirit could but be developed amongst fruit-growers, 

 we should soon have a mass of observations which, when properly 

 digested, would be of incalculable benefit to the whole industry. 



GREEN-MANURING 



The green-manuring of orchards is not a procedure which is 

 much in vogue in this country, for the difficulties in adopting 

 it are greater, and the advantages attending it are less, than 

 they are in other climates. The principle underlying it consists 

 in growing a surface crop, which causes a drain on the soil only 

 during the later part of the season when the trees are not in 

 active growth, and of ploughing in the crop in the early spring, 

 to enrich the soil with the food-material accumulated by it. 

 A nitrogen-fixing, leguminous crop is, naturally, the most suitable 

 one to grow. A further advantage attending green-manuring 

 is that it affords a covering to the ground during the winter, 

 and diminishes the washing out of the soil by heavy rains. In 

 this country, where manure of other sorts is easily procurable, 

 and where excessive wet in the winter is not usual, green-manuring 

 presents less advantages, and the fact that many of our planta- 

 tions are not adapted for being ploughed, and that our uncertain 

 climate often renders the success of a late-sown crop impossible, 

 presents decided disadvantages. 



At the Woburn Fruit Farm, where all manuring of the trees 

 has proved to be without benefit, and where all surface crops 

 have proved to be so prejudicial, it was not to be anticipated 

 that any benefit would accrue from green-manuring : and such 

 has been the case. 



Three plantations of dwarf and standard apples and pears 

 were planted in 1907-8 : in one of these the ground was kept 

 tilled, in the other there was grown a permanent crop of lucerne, 

 whilst in the third, lucerne was sown every summer, and the crop 

 ploughed in in the spring. These different treatments were not 

 initiated till 1911, and their full effect was not apparent till 

 1913 : since that date the behaviour of the plots has been very 



