Vol. LXIV. No. 2874. 
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 25, 1905. 
$1 PER YEAR. 
GRASS MULCH FOR APPLE ORCHARDS. 
Father of the System Talks. 
During the past few years readers have heard considera¬ 
ble about F. 1’. Yergon of Ohio. 11 is apple orchard is never 
plowed or cultivated, and is remarkable for the quality 
of the apples it produces. 
In reply 
to many 
who 
have 
asked what “grass mulch" 
really means, we 
print 
this 
article by Mr. 
Yergon : 
MULCH 
MATERIAL. 
'What 
may be 
used 
for 
mulch? Anything that grows out of the ground, if suf¬ 
ficiently decomposed so as not to be in the way about 
the orchard, will answer a good purpose. Grass mulch 
means not to plow or cultivate the orchard after you 
once commence this system; leave it continuously in 
grass. Timothy is not desirable. Mow the orchard 
once or twice a year as the case may require, rake and 
drop opposite the trees, place mulch around the trees 
out fully to the drip of the branches (a little farther 
is better) ; put on sufficient so that grass or weeds will 
not grow through it; eight or 10 inches thick evenly 
spread. If very dry and fluffy put it on heavier; it will 
soon settle down. If the ground is im¬ 
poverished coarse manure is very much 
better. In this case let the grass lie where 
the machine drops it. It is surprising how 
trees will grow if not permitted to suffer 
for want of moisture; water is a wonder¬ 
ful factor. 
ADVANTAGES OF THE SYSTEM. 
—Perhaps one of the greatest objections 
to this system is, in the eyes of many, that 
they cannot realize from crops in the early 
history of the orchard, but 1 believe there 
is no other way so successfully to get the 
land back to its primitive condition; rich, 
porous and full of humus. It should be 
remembered, if the location is a good one, 
rich orchard land, you are laying the 
foundation for an orchard that will last 
for generations, if this system is adhered 
to. It is true that trees can be grown 
quite successfully by the system of cultiva¬ 
tion up to 10 or 12 years old. By this 
time the land is impoverished, the last 
fiber is burned out of the ground; humus 
entirely exhausted, and something else 
must be done. The mulch system is quite 
easily managed, and not expensive until 
the trees are 10 or 12 years old. After 
this the expense increases with growth of 
the trees. Fortunately the revenue in¬ 
creases as well. This is easily understood. As the trees 
grow larger the territory to mow decreases, and the ter¬ 
ritory to mulch increases; consequently a large portion 
of the mulch must come from some other source than 
the orchard. 
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.—The greater part of 
my orchard was 10 years old last Spring, planted 35 feet 
each way on rolling table land: frost drainage good. 
I his territory was a beautiful Blue grass pasture. I 
had grazed it with Short-horn cattle 35 or 40 years. 
1 am glad to say this same grass still grows in the 
orchard. It was never plowed up, and we are out of 
the mud and dirt, year in and year out, in doing all the 
orchard work, which is a very great item in comfort and 
pleasure. With this system the trees have made uni¬ 
form strong growth each year from the time they were 
planted. With some of the varieties that grow fastest 
and spread most the branches in many places are within 
a foot or two of coming together between the trees; 
this means a spread of about 35 feet on trees 16 years 
old last Spring. I believe this to be a remarkable 
growth. Of course many of the slower-growing varie¬ 
ties will not shake hands for many years. To supply 
the necessary mulch we seeded 20 acres of bottom land 
to Mammoth clover, which yielded at lea$t three tons 
per acre, and was all used for mulch last Summer. In 
addition I bought the straw of nearly 100 acres of heavy 
grain for the same purpose, and completed the mulch 
business where most needed ju t before Winter set in. 
This is somewhat expensive, but the work on the 
ground, except clipping, letting grass lie where it is 
cut, is done for some years. After all, it is certainly 
cheaper than to cultivate «every season; plow, cultivate 
and harrow all Summer; in the Fall seed with some 
catch crop, that very often does not catch, and the 
orchard is washing away all Winter and Spring. In 
fact, it would be utterly impossible to carry on this 
system with our low-headed trees. 
CINDERS FOR MICE.—To keep mice from the trees 
we use fine cinders that come from slack coal (no 
clinkers), one to l l / 2 bushel per tree according to size; 
mound it up in cone style at the base of the trees. It 
is not a fertilizer, nothing grows in it; it is always clean 
and does not wear out. A little wind or sun easily gets 
the snow away from the little black cones, and gives the 
trees a safe and comfortable appearance. I have not 
lost a tree since we began using cinders. We tried 
wire screen, which perhaps looks more plausible than 
any of the many things that are suggested and used, but 
this was not satisfactory. After placing it around the 
tree, pressed into the ground a little, it looked all right, 
but was heaved up by the frost an inch or more; just 
right for the mice to put in theirwork. I cannot em¬ 
phasize too much the use of cinders. If I were not in 
hauling distance I would have them shipped by the car¬ 
load; the cost is but a trifle. Rabbits have done us but 
little harm. They seem to be contented in cutting some 
of the tips from low branches of bearing trees. We 
never pasture with any stock whatever; it cannot be 
done without damage to the orchard. 
ENRICHING THE SOIL.—As to the results of the 
grass-mulch system, it must be apparent that the ground 
is becoming richer all the time with the best natural 
fertilizer (I will call it) for the welfare of the orchard. 
We have a reservoir of humus all over the orchard, but 
more especially under the trees, from the slow decom¬ 
position of the mulch on the under side. Especially here 
is where the bacteria delight most to put in their good 
work,' where it is always moist. Our orchard land is 
underlaid with shale, but quite deep; has a good depth 
of rich Joam by nature, with a brash red clay subsoil (no 
gravel). Yet it has become so porous that practically 
all the rainfall is absorbed in the ground. I am very 
sure that the water never runs out from the mulch under 
the trees, not even on the side hills. How different it 
is with dust mulch, especially after droughts in the Sum¬ 
mer, when rain is so much needed. It frequently comes 
in torrents, the ground is puddled in an instant, and the 
water runs off almost as from a goose's back, and if 
hilly or rolling (as usually the best orchard is), cuts out 
gulleys and washes much of the best soil into the val¬ 
leys and streams. 
EQUALIZED TEMPERATURE.—In the next place, 
the temperature in a measure is equalized; the ground 
under the mulched trees is never so hot in the Summer, 
and never freezes much in Winter. It is quite possible 
for the roots to be injured by very hard freezing. Some 
time since I tested the temperature of the ground in the 
heat of Summer, under the trees, with thermometers. 
Under one the ground was perfectly clean; the other 
was mulched. In each case the bottom of the thermom¬ 
eter rested on the ground, and both in the shade of the 
trees. I watched them for several days at 
six o’clock A. M., one o'clock P. M. and 
six in the evening. The temperature did 
not run quite even, but the average was 
two and one-half to three degrees cooler 
under the mulched tree. I was quite sat¬ 
isfied with this experiment. Extreme tem¬ 
peratures are not best, and the escape of 
humidity is conserved. These conditions 
also hold good in Spring; the ground 
warms up slower under the mulch, and 
the bloom is retarded several days. 
EFFECT UPON FRUIT.—Apples that 
drop are clean and usually not bruised; 
even the leaves are caught up in the mulch 
in the Fall, and are where they will do 
the most good. It is quite generally con¬ 
ceded now that apples color better ancf 
keep better if this be the case. They are 
of better quality also, and I verily believe 
the trees are longer lived. I became fa¬ 
miliar with this system from my pioneer 
days, clearing up the primitive forest. The 
leaves, bark, rotten branches, etc., were 
eight to 12 inches deep, and are added to 
each year, as decomposition is going on 
underneath; a better mulch could not be 
provided for the timber by any artificial 
means. Here Nature has done her own 
plowing for thousands of years. I have 
never forgotten how hard it was to walk on this mulch 
in the Winter, being heaved up by the little needles of 
ice and fine earth, honeycomb fashion, underneath. The 
ground was always moist and rich under this mulch. It 
seemed to me this would be an ideal condition to have 
under my trees. I am very sure with this system it is 
possible for the trees to ripen annual crpps, and form 
fruit buds for the next year. Under other conditions 
the trees frequently suffer so severely from droughts 
that the crop is not well matured, and fruit buds are 
not formed for the following season. 
CROP RESl'L PS. —Last Fall we harvested our elev¬ 
enth or twelfth consecutive paying crop annually since 
1893 or 1894. I canxiot recall the season our crops were 
frozen in June as hard as rocks, when as large as big 
marbles. No human skill can overcome a calamity of 
this kind. This section of the orchard that is in question 
was 16 years old last Spring, and yields 10 to 20 bushels 
per tree, sorted in the orchard, all handled in crates of 
1’j bushel (a tree can easily be measured), hauled in 
every day and stacked up in our cold storage. Some 
trees in the section of the old orchard, 45 years old, of 
my own planting, have harvested 40 bushels and over 
per tree. 1 hese old friends do not bear such uniform 
crops any more, They can afford in their declining 
GOOD FRIENDS ON A VACATION. Fig. 55. 
