THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
305 
FROM THE NEW YORK AGRICULTURAL 
EXPERIMENT STATION 
A Comparison op Tillage and Sod Mui.cii in an Api*le 
OUCIIAUD. 
By U. P. Hedrick. 
Suininary of Bulletin No. 383. 
This is the third account of studies hy the New York 
Agricultural Experiment Station to determine whether 
the apple thrives better under tillage or in sod. The lirst 
account was imblished in Bulletin No. 314, 1909; the sec¬ 
ond in Bulletin No. 375, 1914. 
The experiment ol which this Bulletin is a report 
was begun in 1903 in the orchard of Mr. W. D. Auchter, 
near Bochester, New \ork. In this orchard are nine and 
one-half acres of Baldwin trees, 40 feet apart each way, 
set in 1877. Of these, 118 are in sod, 121 under tillage. 
The Auchter orchard was chosen for this experiment 
because it was uniform in’ soil and topography and quite 
typical of the apple lands of western New York. The 
land is slightly rolling and is a fertile Dunkirk loam, 
about ten inches in depth, underlaid by a sandy subsoil. 
The tilled land was plowed each spring and cultivat¬ 
ed from four to seven times. The grass in the sod plat 
was usually cut once, sometimes twice. In all other op¬ 
erations the care was identical. 
The experiment is divided into two five-year periods. 
During the first period the orchard was divided in halves 
by a north and south line, during the second period by an 
east and west line. One-quarter of the orchard, then, 
has been tilled ten years; another tilled five years and 
then left in sod five years'; the third quarter has been in 
sod ten years and the fourth quarter in sod five years, 
then tilled five years. 
The following is a statement of results : 
The average yield on the plat left in sod for ten years 
was 69.16 barrels per acre; on the plat tilled ten years, 
116.8; difference in favor of tilled plats, 47.64 barrels 
per acre per year. 
The fruit from the sod-mulch plats is more highly 
colored than that from the tilled land. The sodded fruit 
matures from one to three weeks earlier than the tilled 
fruit. 
The tilled fruit keeps from two to four weeks longer 
than the sodded fruit; it is also better in quality, being 
crisper, juicier and of better llavor. 
The average gain in diameter of the trunks for the 
trees in sod for the ten years w as 2.39 inches; for the 
trees under tillage 3.90 inches; gain in favor of tillage 
1.51 inches. 
The trees in sod lacked uniformity in every organ 
and function of wdiicli note could be taken. The uni¬ 
formity of the trees under tillage in all particulars w as in 
striking contrast. 
The grass had a decided efl'ect on the wood of the 
trees, there being many more dead branches on the sod¬ 
ded trees and the new' wood w as not as plump or as 
bright in color. 
The leaves of the tilled trees came out three or four 
days earlier and remained on the trees several days long¬ 
er than on the sodded trees. They were a darker, rich¬ 
er green, indicating greater vigoi', were larger and more 
numerous on the tilled trees. 
The average cost per acre of grow ing and harvest¬ 
ing apples in sod w as -$51.73; under tillage $83.48; differ¬ 
ence in favor of sod $31.75. Subtracting these figures 
from the gross return leaves a “balance” per acre for the 
sodded plats of $74.31; for the tilled plats, of $140.67, 
an increase in favor of tillage of $66.36. For every dol¬ 
lar taken from the sodded trees, after deducting grow ing 
and harvesting expenses, the tilled trees gave one dollar 
eighty-nine cents. 
The effects of the change from sod to tillage were 
almost instantaneous. Tree and foliage were favorably 
affected before mid-summer of the lirst year; and the 
crop, while below' the normal, consisted of apples as large 
in size as any in the orchard, the falling off in yield be¬ 
ing due to poor setting. 
The change for the worse was quite as remarkable 
and as immediate in the quarter of the orchard turned 
from tillage into sod; the average yield in this (juarter 
w as not hall that ol any one of the other three quarters. 
The use ol nitrate of soda in the sod plats greatly in- 
preased the vigor of the trees and was a paying invest¬ 
ment, yet for the live-years period they bore but a trifle 
more than half as niucli as the tilled trees. 
The very marked beneficial on the sodded trees of 
ground adjacent under tillage teaches that not only 
should apples not be grown in sod but that for the best 
good of the trees there should be no sod near them. 
Only in the amount of humus and nitrogen has the 
soil been appreciably changed by tlie tw o treatments. The 
quantities of humus and nitrogen in the plat tilled ten 
years are so much greater that it is safe to assume that 
the tillage and cover-crop treatment conserves humus and 
nitrogen better than the sod-mulch treatment. 
Grass militates against ajiples growing in sod in sev¬ 
eral ways which act together, as : 
(1) Low'ering the water supply, 
(2) Decreasing some elements in the food supply, 
(3) Beducing the amount of humus, 
(4) Lowering the temperature of the soil, 
(5) Diminishing the supply of air, 
(6) All'ecting deleteriously the beneficial micro-llora, 
(7) Forming a toxic compound that aflects the trees. 
General statements are: 
Sod is less harmful in deep than in shallow soils. 
There is nothing in this exjieriment to show'^ that 
ajijiles ever become adapted to giuss. 
Sod may occasionally be used in making more fruit¬ 
ful an orchard grow ing too luxuriantly. 
Other fruits than the ajiple are jirobably harmed 
quite as much or more by sod. 
The effects of grass occur regardless of variety, age 
of tree, or cultural treatment, and are felt whether the 
trees are on dwarf or standard stocks. 
Because of their shallow' root systems, dwarf trees 
are even more liable to injury from grass than standards. 
Hogs, sheep or cattle jiastured on sodded orchards do 
not overcome the bad effects of the grass. 
Owners of sodded orchards often do not discover the 
evil effects of the grass because they have no tilled trees 
with w hich to make comparisons. 
