June, 1910. 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
— An Important Point. — 
In all trees symmetry is an important 
point, both for appearance and economy’s 
sake. A well-proportioned tree, in which 
all the growth is evenly disposed, alone 
will give the best results, 
Remarkable Profits of Fruit 
Growing. 
Startling figures of the profits made out 
of fruit growing have been published. A 
200-acre orchard at Pakenham, Victoria, 
is credited with producing £16,000 annual 
profit. Another grower is said to have 
obtained £590 from one acre for six years, 
and many others ure alleged to have easily 
cleared £200 an acre. 
G. A. PREVOST & CO., 
Currie Street, 
ADELAIDE. 
FRUIT EXPORTERS 
ON GROWERS’ ACCOUNT. 
EVERY FACILITY GIVEN. 
Sole Agents in S.A. for— 
Nicholls’ Arsenate of Lead 
ss Bordeaux Paste 
a Fungicide 
a Tnsecticide 
‘Bave-vw’ Power Sprayers 
Jones’ Lancaster Hand 
Sprayers. 
Barger’s Disc Cultivators 
Write for Illustrated Pamphlet. 
Suppliers of— 
FRUIT EXPORT CASES, WOOD 
WOOL, WRAPPING PAPER, 
CORK DUST. 
PRINTIN G 
EVERY 
DESCRIPTION 
AT SHORTEST NOTICE, 
‘“Rustralian 
Gardener” Office, 
20 Waymouth Street, 
The Effect of Grass on Trees, 
The effect of grass on trees is probably 
intimately connected with that funda- 
mental question in agriculture to which 
no comprehensive answer has yet been 
obtained—ramely, the fertility of the 
soi.. The cisnal observer may dismiss 
the subject by stating that itis simply 
due to the grass rob ing the tree of its 
nourishment or its moisture, but such a 
gtatement can only be base l on ignorance 
of the fasts, an 1 of all the work which hag 
The subject 
has been under investization a the 
Woburn Experinental Frait Farm for 
the last fifteen yeirs; one report (the 
third) devling with it was published in 
1903, and it is hoped that avother will 
be issued before very long. 
Although no final solution of the 
problein has yet been obtainei, consi er- 
been dono in the matter. 
able progress has been made in he 
matter, and various possible explanations 
have been definitely negatived. Fore- 
that 
the action is due to the grass absorbing 
all the food and water from the soil. 
most amongst these is the theory 
- The original experiments are, perhaps, the 
most striking, though not the most precise 
on this point, A large number of apple- 
trees were planted in rows, 11 ft. apart, in 
1904; the ground in one row was kept 
tilled, and that in the other row laid 
down to grass; the grass, when cut, is 
left to rot on the ground, and the same 
amount of manure is given to both rows 
of trees. Those in the t lled soil are now 
such large trees that half of them have 
had to be removed, their spread being 
some 15 to 16 ft. ; those in grass did not 
grow at all for several years, and only 
began to make growth when their roots 
extended beyond the grassed area; they 
are still miserable specimens of trees 
about one-sixth the size of the others, 
and the crops borne by them have enly 
been about one-tent: of that of their 
neighbours, Yet the grassed soil is 
actually richer than the till-d soil, In 
the fifteen years it has had removed from 
it only ono crop of grass (that actually 
growing at any given moment) and the 
small amount of material required for the 
28 
stunted growth of the trees; whereas 
from the tilled soil there has been removed 
material from an annual crop of fruit, 
and also for the vigorous growth of the 
trees. Analysis also shows that the 
grassed soil is the richer of the two, and 
it also shows that, in this particular case, 
there is practically no difference between 
the water contents of the grassed and open 
plots, , 
Of the many other experiments on these 
points, the most conclusive are, perhaps, 
those made with apple-trees grown in 
pots. In some of thes: the grass roots 
were separated from the tree roots by very 
fine wire gauze, through which the former 
could not penetrate ; the pots were 
wevhed and watered every two days, 80 
as to keep the water contents tho same, 
and such water and fool as was added 
was introduced from. below, so that the 
Yet 
the trees still suffered badly from the 
tree shuld have the first pull at it. 
grass, althoug. ihe svil- was actually 
mister and richer than in’ the case of 
similar trees without grass. _Correspond- 
ing experiments have been made with 
trees planted in the open. Though 
increase of moisture up to a certain point, 
and increase of food in certain cases, may 
benefit the trees, the benefit is much, too 
small to do more than very slightly, 
diminish the delecterious effect of, the 
grass, nati = 
The .behaviour of the tree in grass is. 
clearly a case of starvation in a land of 
plenty, and this cannot be explained by 
supposing (utenable as sucha supposition 
is for other reasons) that the grass roots 
suck up whatever nourishing solution 
there is in the svil, leaving none for the 
tree roots. The pot experiments, just 
Nor 
can wo explain the matter by supposing 
quoted, effectively negative this. 
phat the tree was only teuiporarily 
affected by the grass, but being in a weak 
this check 
resulted in its becoming permanently 
i 
state after transplanting 
stunted ; for a precisely similar, andeven 
more marked effect has been proved to be 
. ry i 
produced by grassing over trees which 
have been established, in one case for four 
years, and in another case for twelve 
years ; the effect, indeed, was so great that 
in the first instance, a similar result 
appears imminent, 
+s 
