American Agriculturist, August 18,1923 
115 
Alfalfa in the Orchard 
The Experience of a West Virginia Grower 
WE OFFER 
I N the July 7th issue By B. G 
of the American 
Agriculturist, I noticed your editorial 
on alfalfa in the orchard and ycu ask 
for other experiences. I have been 
deeply interested in this subject for 
many years and have watched for re¬ 
sults carefully. 
I have an orchard of about 6,000 
Delicious, Winesap, and Rome Beauty 
apple trees in West Virginia that are 
now eleven years of age. One part of 
this orchard was planted to alfalfa 
when the trees were two years of age. 
A strip two and one-half "to three feet 
wide was left for cultivation, which 
was continued for two years. Another 
part of the orchard was cultivated; 
rye and vetch was planted as cover 
crop, turned under, and planted to po¬ 
tatoes, which were cultivated and fer¬ 
tilized. This was probably better land 
than that planted to alfalfa. The trees 
in the alfalfa made better growth, even 
where every particle of the alfalfa was 
. PRATT season almost twice as 
great as that on the 
other. About a half a case of cher¬ 
ries per tree was taken from the sod 
block, while the cuttings of alfalfa for 
hay have paid the cost of caring for 
the orchard ever since the first year of 
planting. Each tree in this plot was 
given an application last spring of one 
pound of acid phosphate and one-half 
pound of nitrate of soda. 
“An interesting pruning experiment 
is being carried out on the station with 
apples. In a block of four-year-old 
Duchess trees, the unpruned trees have 
made a larger growth and have set a 
fair crop of fruit; moderately pruned 
and budded trees h&ve a light set of 
fruit and are smaller, while a tree 
pruned according to the modified lead¬ 
er system has no fruit and growth has 
been greatly retarded. Similar results 
have been obtained on the station with 
Grimes’ Golden and Winesaps. Tests 
with Spies, Baldwins and Greenings are 
Eight year old delicious trees in Mr. Pratt’s orchard 
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cut and put in the barn, than the other. 
The enclosed picture was taken when 
this orchard was eight years of age, 
after five years of alfalfa and no fer¬ 
tilization whatever. The growth is ac¬ 
tually excessive. This orchard set a 
beautiful crop of fruit in its sixth year, 
but was totally destroyed by hail, which 
also injured the foilage so that there 
was no crop the following year. 
I do not believe that alfalfa will de¬ 
tract anything from an apple orchard, 
especially if one crop at least of the 
alfalfa is used for mulching the trees. 
The alfalfa root goes very deep after 
moisture and I hardly believe that an 
alfalfa root may be well supplied with 
water, while an apple root, intertwined 
with it, will suffer from lack of 
moisture. 
But, whether alfalfa cuts down the 
growth and vigor of the tree, all the 
evidence that I have been able to gather 
seems to indicate that apple trees in 
alfalfa are great producers. My at¬ 
tention was called to this a great many 
years ago in an article in “Better 
Fruit,” which gave the average crop 
for fifteen years in two orchards, one 
in alfalfa, the other clean culture and 
cover crops. The average in the latter 
orchard was ten and a fraction boxes 
per tree. And, in the alfalfa orchard, 
nineteen and a fraction. 
I know of an apple orchard in New 
Jersey in alfalfa sod that averaged a 
bushel per tree of boxing fruit when 
they were five years of age and some 
trees producing as high as four and 
one-half bushels per tree. 
The “New York Packer,” July 21, 
carried a story in regard to the plant¬ 
ing of cherry trees in the alfalfa or¬ 
chard as against clean cultivation at 
the. Michigan Agricultural College. 
While the cultivated plot produced 
trees almost twice as large as those 
in the sod, the latter are producing a 
crop of fruit this season almost twice 
as great as that of the other. 
“One block of trees at the station 
has been set in an alfalfa sod. Along¬ 
side of it is another block of three- 
year-old trees growing under clean 
culture. These two blocks furnish a 
striking comparison. The cultivated 
plot is producing trees almost twice 
as large as those in the sod, but the 
latter are producing a crop of fruit this 
not far enough advanced to determine 
the value of pruning as a means of 
bringing an orchard into early produc¬ 
tion. The station is seeking methods 
by which growers can plant orchards 
and bring them into earliest produc¬ 
tion at the lowest possible cost. 
SWEET CLOVER AS COVER CROP 
Would you think it advisable to use sweet 
clover for a cover crop in orchards in this 
section of the country? If so, when should 
it be sown, how much to the acre and about 
how much does it cost per bushel?-—L. P., 
Niagara Co., N. Y. 
Under our conditions the limiting 
factor in orchard growth is fertility. 
Now let us decide that there is enough 
fertilizers, nitrogen excepted, in the 
furrow slice to produce fruit for more 
than 50 years. This is shown us in 
agricultural chemistry. Also we have 
observed two generations of apple trees 
on the same soil without exhaustion. 
Then the question comes to one of 
nitrogen and availability. The Penn¬ 
sylvania Station has clearly shown that 
nitrogen is the controlling element in 
growth in young orchards. Careful 
summaries on my fai-m have shown 
that nitrogen in tops and roots of a 
sweet clover sod, 13 months old, was 
equal to one ton of nitrate of soda per 
acre. Young plants winter-kill, and I 
would try for Central New York the 
main sowing July 15, with small experi¬ 
mental sowings July 1 and August 1. 
The seed costs a little less than red 
clover. Use only scarified seed. We 
are trying out the sweet clover sod 
mulch system, and expect it to be best 
of all for apples. It has made good 
elsewhere.—G. E. S. 
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