Shall I Till, Pasture, or Mulch the Orchard ?— By s. w. Fletcher 



Photographs by the author, from the Horticultural Department of Cornell University, and J. E. Rice 



Cornell 

 University 



WHEN the trees are planted, and every 

 year thereafter, the home orchardist 

 must decide between tillage, substitutes for 

 tillage, and sod. Which shall it be? A 

 satisfactory solution of the problem means 

 food and drink to the trees. The tillage 



362. The row on the left was tilled. and the other 

 not tilled. Otherwise they were treated aliKe. Does 

 it pay to till? It certainly did in this case 



problem is the most important one that the 

 home fruit grower is called upon to solve. 

 Neglect of tillage and injudicious tillage ruin 

 more fruit trees than all their insect pests, 

 all their diseases, and all butcher pruning. 

 This is a fact, readily proven by observation, 

 not merely an opinion. 



HOW TILLAGE SAVES SOIL MOISTURE 



Everybody can see that plowing and har- 

 rowing the soil prepare it for the plants, 

 and that frequent stirrings thereafter kill 

 the weeds that would rob the plants of food 



363. Thriving, bearing, happy in well-tilled land. 

 It usually pays to till trees as well as it does to till 

 vegetables — and for the same reasons 



and drink. But stirring the soil does far 

 more good than killing weeds. It saves 

 moisture; it makes a "soil mulch." Be- 

 neath the mulch of decaying leaves and 

 branches in the forest you will find moist 

 soil, even in the dryest season. Beneath 

 the strawy manure between your rows of 

 strawberries the soil is moist. In drought, 

 you hunt for angleworms beneath the chips 

 of the woodpile — it is moist there. Lift up 

 a board or a large fiat stone and notice the 

 moist soil beneath. All these are mulches. 

 Anything that is put between the soil and 

 the air, and so checks the evaporation of 

 water from the soil, is a mulch. 



One of the best mulches, and usually 

 the cheapest, is the soil mulch. A surface 

 layer of soil, made loose and dry by frequent 

 stirring, keeps the soil moisture from escap- 

 ing, like the leaves, the straw, the stones. 

 Prove this for yourself during a "dry spell" 

 by digging in tilled ground and in unfilled 

 ground. This moisture the plants need, 

 especially fruit plants. Hence it is sometimes 

 necessary to till, even though there is not a 

 weed in sight — to save water. Covering 

 the soil all over with rocks or boards, or 

 leaves, chips, straw would accomplish the 

 same purpose. 



Tillage also makes the ground more fertile. 

 Much of the plant food in the soil is like the 

 nutriment in flour to you and me. It is 

 not in digestible and palatable form and so 

 it is useless to us for the time being. Tillage 

 lets in the air, which acts upon this raw 

 plant food — "cooks" it, so to speak — and 

 makes it palatable to the plant. It also 

 puts the soil in better texture, making it 

 more mellow and finer, so that the plants 

 have more feeding area. Hence it is a com- 

 mon expression, and a true one, that tilling 

 a soil may be equivalent to fertilizing it. 



The desirability of tilling fruit trees in 

 general calls for no more convincing proof tha n 

 that which any observing man may gather for 

 himself by examining a hundred or more 

 orchards in almost any section of the country. 

 Usually, but not always, it is the owner of 

 the sod orchard who says, "fruit growing 

 doesn't pay." Usually, but not always, it 

 will be noticed that the sod orchard drops 

 its leaves during the summer drought, has 

 the most windfalls, harbors the most pests, 

 nourishes the most "fungus." Usually, but 

 not always, he will find that the back-yard 

 trees in sod are not as thrifty, and do not 

 produce as high-class fruit as the back-yard 

 trees that are scratched under by harrows or 

 by hens. Facts like these establish beyond 

 dispute the general desirability of tilling 

 fruit trees. There are some cases, how- 

 ever, where equivalent results can be secured 

 more advantageously by other means; cases 

 where tillage is unnecessary; and others 

 where tillage is positively harmful. "Till- 

 age of fruit trees pays," is the general rule, 

 applicable in most instances. "Sometimes 

 sodding, pasturing or mulching fruit trees 

 273 



is better or is more expedient than tillage " 

 is the exception to the rule. 



SOD ORCHARDS ON RICH, MOIST LAND 



When the soil of the home orchard is 

 exceptionally rich, and quite moist, the trees 



364. A typical sod orchard of the old school. It is 

 pastured with cattle. Half the trees have died and 

 the rest are unprofitable 



may sometimes be left in sod. Especially 

 on bottom lands and alluvial soils. The 

 chief reasons for tilling an orchard are to 

 supply moisture and to increase the fertility 

 of the soil. If the soil be rich, and suffi- 

 ciently moist at all times, there may be no 

 need of tillage for these two purposes. In 

 fact, tillage may be harmful in such a case 

 because it may supply the trees with more 

 moisture and more food than they need. 

 If the trees are productive and vigorous 

 without tillage do not disturb them. Keep 

 such trees in sod and pasture or mulch them. 

 It is rarely advisable, however, to leave fruit 

 trees permanently in sod, even under these 

 conditions. Usually it is best to plow and 

 till the land for one season every two to 



k«l . I '' 



Warn 



365. A young npple orchard that has been seeded 

 to grain because it is growing too fast. The grain 

 will checK this rampant growth . 



