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Show W31ARD QLXAMNQj FIND CULTIVATION BEST IN ORCHARD Most orchards should be cultivated during the early part of the season, and a cover crop, preferably a legume, leg-ume, should be sowed In the early fall, according to the New York agricultural agri-cultural experiment station. This practice Is claimed to have decided advantages over the sod mulch system, sys-tem, at least for most districts of the state. The station, in tests extending over ten years, secured an average yield per acre of 09.16 barrels of apples j from an orchard left la sod. A yield of 116.8 barrels per acre was obtained from an orchard cultivated during the same period. The cultivated trees made a decidedly better growth than . the ones In sod. The beneficial effects from cultivation cultiva-tion are believed to result from the saving in soil moisture and to the lack of competition between the trees and the sod for moisture and plant food. Also insects and diseases are more readily kept under control in the cultivated orchard than in the sod orchards, due to the protection afforded af-forded by the sod during the winter. The station recognizes, however, that on soils that are rocky or which are so hilly that cultivation would be difficult it may be impracticable to cultivate. Furthermore, hilly land may wash badly if cultivation is practiced. prac-ticed. It must also be recognized that cultivation is somewhat expensive on hilly and rocky land. In view of such conditions, it may be advisable, in the opinion of station experts, to practice sod cultivation in some orchards on hilly or rocky land. On most apple soils, however, the station believes that tillage will prove more profitable than sod culture. While the station's recommendations pertain particularly to conditions in New York, the recommendations will prove applicable In many other states, particularly in eastern and northeastern northeast-ern fruit sections. |