Il6 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE WISLEY LABORATORY. 



XXXV. — Effect of Grass on Apple Trees. 



By A. N. Rawes and F. J. Chittenden, F.L.S., V.M.H. 



Almost universal experience bears out the results obtained at the 

 Ridgmont Experimental Fruit Farm by the Duke of Bedford and 

 Mr. S. U. Pickering in experiments upon the effect of growing fruit- 

 trees in grass, yet even now new plantations are not infrequently 

 allowed to become covered with grass up to the trees with bad effect 

 upon the latter and disappointment and loss to the grower. 



Row i 



Row 2 



Row 3 



Row 4 



Row 5 



Variety and Stock. 



E 



E* 



E* 



E** 



E** 



Emperor Alexander on Paradise. 



D 



D* 



D* 



D** 



D** 



Beauty of Bath on Crab. 



C 



c* 



c* 



c** 



c** 



Newton Wonder on Crab. 



B 



B* 



B* 



B** 



B** 



Manks Codlin on Crab. 



A 



A* 



A* 



A** 



A** 



Ribston Pippin on Paradise. 



Fig. 14. Showing Arrangement of Trees in Demonstration Plot, istrow 

 in cultivated ground ; 2nd and 3rd rows* with grass to 1 foot 6 inches 

 of stem ; 4th and 5th rows** grassed up to stem. 



It is true that in some circumstances which are not yet under- 

 stood the trees do not appear to suffer to any appreciable extent, 

 and it is possible that in other circumstances after years of struggle 

 they may (unless they have died before — and it takes years of struggle 

 to kill a tree) recover and eventually form fairly good trees ; but while 

 this struggle is going on the loss of crop is great and not to be com- 

 pensated for by any gain from the presence of grass about the trees, 

 arising either from grazing value or from doing away with the necessity 

 of using the hoe frequently. 



The records given here are taken from a plot planted for demonstra- 

 tion purposes at Wisley. They add nothing to what is already known 

 and establish no new principle, but we make no apology for publishing 

 them if they serve to drive home the lesson taught by the Ridgmont 

 experiments, and deter some of those who, among the many likely to 

 plant fruit-trees in the near future, designed to plant them in grass, 

 or persuade others who have unthrifty young trees in grass to 

 remove it and keep the ground cultivated for a few years. 



The ground in which the trees were planted was prepared in 1911. 

 It was poor pasture, chalked, ploughed, and manured with farmyard 



