460 Reporr OF THE HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT OF THE 
are turgid and crisp while in the apples from the sod-mulch 
plat there is a tendency. to dryness and mealiness. A deter- 
- mination of the water content, however, does not show much 
difference in this respect, the tilled fruit having 84.37 per ct. 
moisture, the sod-mulch fruit 84.17 per ct. There is no ap- 
preciable difference in the specific gravity of the must of the 
fruit from the two plats as indicated by the hydrometer, show- 
ing that the percentage of soluble solids is practically the same 
in the two products. 
There are noteworthy differences in the flesh of the two 
fruits. That of the apples from the sodded trees is yellowish 
in color and frequently tinted with red at the circumference 
while that of the apples from the tilled trees is greenish and 
never tinted. Of more importance commercially is the fact 
that the flesh of the sodded fruit is more frequently spotted 
with the “ Baldwin spot,” a dry, corky condition of portions 
of the flesh due probably to some physiological trouble. This 
corky tissue sometimes envelops the core and in other speci- 
mens involves not a little of the circumference of the fruit. 
Such a physiological defect must be considered as a result of 
some harmful disturbance in the well-being of the tree. 
Uniformity in trees and crop.—In commercial orcharding 
it is greatly to be desired that trees behave uniformly,—espe- 
cially in the matter of bearing crops. A method that causes 
a tree to bear annually, or to bear a crop of fruit of uniform 
size, or to have its load well distributed, is a more valuable 
method than one that does not secure uniformity in these re- 
spects. The advantage of tillage over the sod-mulch system 
in the matter of uniformity is most marked. Not so much in 
the matter of annual bearing, for the Baldwin rarely bears 
annually under any treatment, but greatly so as to the size 
of fruit, the distribution of the crop on the tree, and in the 
performance of individual trees. The trees in..sod showed 
marked abnormalities in their tendency to produce large fruits 
or large crops on a part of the tree, and small fruits or none 
at all on another part. Of two trees standing in sod, side by 
side, one would bear large fruit, the other small; one a crop, 
