518 JOURNAL OF THE EOYAL HOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



for the first time published, upon small apples and the upper surface of 

 apple leaves, as does the codling moth. The eggs are about half the size 

 of those of the codling moth and are laid a little later in June. — F. J. G. 



Apple Orchards. By S. B. Hartman and H. J. Eustace (U.S.A. 

 Exp. Stn. Michigan, Bull. 253 ; March 1909). — Describes the gradual 

 improvement in crop and value of certain orchards when well pruned, 

 cultivated, and sprayed, with results for five years, also hints on improving 

 neglected orchards, information on spraying and costs of the various 

 outfits for spraying. Among other useful notes it says : a leather pad 

 fitted on the extension rod just above the hand affords some protection 

 from the drip. A little vinegar will easily and completely clean the hands 

 from Bordeaux mixture. The horses drawing the spraying apparatus 

 should be covered with a canvas sheet to protect them from the spray 

 fluids.— C. H. H. 



Apple Orchard, Tillage v. Grass in an. By U. P. Hedrick 

 (U.S.A. Exp. Stn., New York, Bull. 314 ; March 1909 ; 7 plates).— This 

 Station is conducting two experiments to determine whether the apple 

 thrives better in cultivated land or in grass, and this is a preliminary 

 report upon one of these, covering a period of five years. The orchard 

 consists of nine and a half acres of Baldwins planted in 1877 at a distance 

 of 40 feet each way, and until 1903 it was treated uniformly throughout 

 in every respect, the land being under tillage, with an annual cover crop. 

 In October 1903 half was sown with grass, and this has been cut each 

 subsequent year in June, sometimes again later, and the grass left as it 

 fell from the mower, this being known as the sod-mulch system. The 

 method of tillage of the other half of the orchard each year has been 

 spring ploughing with cultivation till late July, followed by a cover crop. 



The average annual yield of an acre for the five years (1904-8 inclusive) 

 has been 72-9 barrels on the sod plot and 109*2 barrels on the tilled plot, 

 the average annual net income from an acre being $71*52 for the former 

 and $110*43 for the latter. Not only are the trees in the tilled ground 

 healthier and more vigorous, but the fruit is crisper, more juicy, of better 

 flavour, and of more uniform quality, and in common storage keeps a month 

 longer than that from the sod plot, the only points which might 

 be reckoned in favour of the latter being that the fruit matures from one 

 to three weeks earlier than that on the tilled land, and is much more 

 highly coloured, which latter characteristic, however, the author regards 

 as the hectic flush of disease, purchased at the expense of the health and 

 vigour of the trees. 



The conclusion is arrived at that the differences in tree-growth and 

 crop in the two plots are mainly due to differences in moisture, the grass 

 using so much of the water content of the soil that insufficient is left for 

 the proper development of the trees. The top soil of the orchard, however, 

 is shallow— only nine to twelve inches — and the author suggests that the 

 grass might be less harmful in a deeper soil. The rainfall, too, in the 

 neighbourhood of the orchard, averaging 17*78 inches for the six 

 growing months, is seldom sufficient in his views even for the optimum 

 development of an apple crop, and he thinks the trees would not suffer as 



