N. H. AGR. EXPERIMENT STATION. [Bulletin 190 



INTRODUCTION. 



From time to time during the past ten years reports have been 

 issued deaUng with various phases of our experiments in the 

 Woodman Orchard. The primary object of these experiments 

 has been to study the factors which influence the formation of 

 flower buds and conversely those which tend to produce only vege- 

 tative ones. And truly it can be said that the work has only be- 

 gun, since so many new phases of the problem arise that are 

 closely related to those already under investigation. The present 

 paper, however, deals more particularly with the yield and 

 growth of the trees which have been under the various cultural 

 treatments and also with the results from the continuous use of 

 fertilizers, or in other words with the more practical phases of the 

 work. While the work was begun in 1908 the treatments this 

 first year could scarcely affect materially the yield, hence the ten- 

 year period from 1909-1918 is used in summarizing the work, 

 although the records of 1908 are cited for comparison. For the 

 effects of these treatments on the soil itself and upon the internal 

 responses of the tree, the reader should consult previous papers.* 



In reviewing this work it should be remembered that New 

 Hampshire conditions are in the mind of the writer for doubtless 

 some of the conclusions would lose their point or at least seem 

 superfluous if applied to some other sections. For instance 

 it does not seem necessary for anyone to prove that growing apple 

 trees in sod is usually not a good practice, for that was demon- 

 strated years ago by various experiment stations as well as indi- 

 viduals and yet it is the prevailing practice in so many quarters 

 that repetition of the value of other methods of culture seems 

 justified. True, experimental evidence may not change the 

 practice because of good or poor reasons for continuing the old, 

 yet we repeat that our Experiment Station can give the growers 

 no more valuable advice than to follow the practices which have 

 proven successful in this orchard, modified, of course, to suit their 

 own conditions. In our experience of the past ten years the sod 

 section of the orchard has borne uniformly so poorly that it 

 would not pay commercially and the tilled portions of the or- 



* N. H. Exper. Sta. Tech. Bui. Nos. 9, 11 and 12. 



