New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. (445 
we can only repeat, that no ordinary form of ill-treatment— 
including, even, the combination of bad planting, growth of 
weeds, and total neglect—is so harmful to the trees as growing 
grass round them; indeed, the ‘neglected’ trees in plot 44, 
which up to 1900 showed only a slight advantage over the grass- 
grown trees, are now decidedly superior to them, both in size 
and vigor, whilst in the similarly ‘neglected’ plots of stand- 
ards, the trees are but little less vigorous than the normal 
ones.” 
The authors state that their investigation leads them to be- 
lieve that water supply, food supply, and air supply are not 
the principal causes of the deleterious effects of the grass on 
the trees.2 Soil temperature is discussed and dismissed as not 
being a prime factor. The chief hypothesis set forth in this 
report as to the cause of the evil effect of grass on the apple is 
that a toxin is excreted by the grass roots. The statement in 
this regard is as follows:* “ Direct experiments seem to neva- 
tive the possibility of explaining the action of grass on appie 
trees in the various ways which we have discussed above, water, 
food and air supply, and lead us to a conclusion, which has als» 
gradually been forced upon us by the appearance itself of the 
trees throughout the years that they have been under observa- 
tion, namely, that this action of grass is not merely a question 
of starvation in any form, nor of any simple modification of 
the ordinary conditions under which a tree can thrive, but 
that the grass has some actively malignant effect on the tree, 
some action on it akin to that of direct poisoning.” 
INVESTIGATION AT THE OHIO AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, 
In an experiment conducted at the Ohio Experiment Station 
by W. J. Green and F. H. Ballou’ the investigators leave the 
inference that the apple thrives better under a sod and mulch 
method of management than under tillage and cover crops. 
The results obtained by the Ohio Station are as follows: 
3 Third Report of the Woburn Experimental Fruit Farm, 1903:23. 
4Third Report of the Woburn Expcrimental Fruit Farm, 1903:47. 
§ Ohio Sta. Bul. 171., March, 1996. 
