Productive orcharding, modern methods of growing and marketing fruit . th the large number of in-sects which winter either inthe soil or in trash upon theground it could hardly beotherwise than that theyshould flourish best under amanagement which never dis-turbs the soil and whichkeeps a constant supply oflitter to hide in. The curculiois especially happy in a sodorchard and the red-bugseems equally so. 5. There is less dangerfrom mice. This is anotherargument which it is difficultfor the sod-culture advocateto disprove; in fact he usuallyfrankly admits it and putssome sort of guard about his
Productive orcharding, modern methods of growing and marketing fruit . th the large number of in-sects which winter either inthe soil or in trash upon theground it could hardly beotherwise than that theyshould flourish best under amanagement which never dis-turbs the soil and whichkeeps a constant supply oflitter to hide in. The curculiois especially happy in a sodorchard and the red-bugseems equally so. 5. There is less dangerfrom mice. This is anotherargument which it is difficultfor the sod-culture advocateto disprove; in fact he usuallyfrankly admits it and putssome sort of guard about his trees to protect them. An orchardin the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, may be cited as an illustra-tion. The owner left some grass in one corner of his orchardone winter and the next spring every tree in the acre and aquarter was completely girdled by mice. They were all bridgegrafted and not a tree was lost. When visited ten years after,each tree stood on stilts, as shown in Figure 36. But one mightnot be so fortunate as this in every case and even with protectors. Fig. 36.—A tree girdled by mice and savedby bridge grafting. This is entirely practicaland any good grafter can do the work. METHOD OF CULTIVATION 83 there is always danger of accidents. There are sections wheremice are never troublesome, and in these localities the argumentwould not hold. 6. The cultivated orchard yields more fruit. This is a diffi-cult point to prove and probably never will be proved to thesatisfaction of the best sod-culture advocates. General observa-tion and still more orchard surveys have sho^vn that, with therank and file, cultivation gives far better yields. After all it isthe average that counts. A system may be ever so good with theexceptional man and if it falls down with the average man it isbetter not to attempt it, for most of us are ^ average. 7. Cultivated orchards yield larger and better apples. Thisis another point which will never be admitted by the sod culturistand doubtless i
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