24 DirRectTorR’s REPORT OF THE 
eates that the common spraying arsenicals may be safely combined 
with diluted lime-sulphur solutions. 
Directions are given for making the home-made concentrated 
lime-sulphur wash. This method of preparing a sulphur spray 
has several advantages and should be tested by fruit growers to 
determine its applicability under their own conditions. 
DEPARTMENT OF HORTICULTURE, : 
A comparison of tillage and sod mulch in an apple orchard.— 
In Bulletin 814 an attempt is made to answer the question 
as to whether the apple thrives better under tillage or in sod. 
The method of tillage chosen for the experiment was to plow in 
the spring, cultivate until late July, and follow with a cover crop. 
The sod method chosen was that known as the sod-mulch method 
in which the grass is cut as a mulch. The experiment was begun 
in 1903 in the orchard of W. D. Auchter, near Rochester, New 
York. This orchard consists of nine and one-half acres of Bald- 
win trees set in 1877, forty feet apart each way. The number of 
trees in the sod plat is 118; in the tilled plat, 121. In typography — 
the Auchter orchard is rolling. The soil is a Dunkirk loam to a 
depth of ten inches, underlain by a sandy subsoil. The trees in 
the two plats received identical care in all orchard operations 
excepting soil treatment. The grass in the sod plat was cut twice 
in three of the five years, in the other two but once. The tilled 
land was plowed each spring and cultivated from four to seven 
times. Statements of results follow: 
The average yield on the sod plat for the five years was 72.9 
barrels per acre; for the tilled plat, 109.2 barrels; difference in 
favor of tilled plat, 36.3 barrels. Estimates made at blooming 
and fruiting time showed a far greater number of fruits on the 
tilled trees. Actual count showed 484 apples per barrel on the 
sod land weighing 5.01 ounces each and 309 apples per barrel 
on the tilled plat weighing 7.04 ounces each. The fruit from the 
sod-mulch plat matures from one to three weeks earlier than that 
on the tilled plat. In common storage fruit from the tilled plat 
