Peo! OFTHE OR TICULLURAL 
DEPARTMENT. 

A COMPARISON OF TILLAGE AND SOD MULCH 
IN AN APPLE ORCHARD.* 
U. P. HEDRICK. 

SUMMARY. 
In an attempt to answer the question as to whether the apple 
thrives better under tillage or in sod, the New York. Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station is conducting two experiments. This 
bulletin is a preliminary report on one of these experiments. 
The problem on hand is to determine what the comparative 
effects of tillage and sod are on the apple. The method of tillage 
chosen 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, or Hitchings, method in which the grass 
is cut as a mulch. 
The experiment under consideration was begun in 1903 in the 
orchard of Mr. W. D. Auchter, near Rochester, New York. This 
orchard consists of nine and one-half acres of Baldwin 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 topography the Auchier orchard is slightly rolling. The 
soil-is a fertile Dunkirk loam to a depth of ten inches, underlain 
by a sandy subsoil. Variations in soil are few and slight. 
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. , 
The relative merits of the two treatments were gauged by all 
important characters of fruit and tree. Statements of results 
follow: | 

* A reprint of Bulletin No. 314. 
1435] 
