Productive orcharding, modern methods of growing and marketing fruit . vation will give the best results. Sod Culture.—For sod culture the principal argumentsadvanced are: 1. It is not so expensive a method of caring for the soil. Thisis certainly correct, as the only expense is the cutting of thegrass in the orchard once or twice a year (Fig. 35). But unlessit can be shown that with this less expense the grower gets thesame or nearly the same net returns this is not a very strongargument. 2. The fruit will keep longer. This would apply to applesand pears in particular, and is probably also tr
Productive orcharding, modern methods of growing and marketing fruit . vation will give the best results. Sod Culture.—For sod culture the principal argumentsadvanced are: 1. It is not so expensive a method of caring for the soil. Thisis certainly correct, as the only expense is the cutting of thegrass in the orchard once or twice a year (Fig. 35). But unlessit can be shown that with this less expense the grower gets thesame or nearly the same net returns this is not a very strongargument. 2. The fruit will keep longer. This would apply to applesand pears in particular, and is probably also true. The fruit SOD CULTURE 79 is usually smaller than that grown under cultivation, whichmeans a more solid flesh that naturally does not break down sosoon. While keeping quality is not so important as it was whenstorage facilities were poorer, still it is certainly worthconsidering. 3. The fruit is more highly colored. Probably this will holdgood as a general rule because the tree under sod culture islikely to ripen up more quickly and the fruit is therefore given. Fig. 35.—Mowing the grass in a sod orchard. The difficulty comes in resisting the temp-tation to rake it and put it in the barn. earlier in the season the maturity which favors coloring in theautumn. Cultivated orchards sometimes are given too late culti-vation or otherwise supplied with too much nitrogen, whichfavors late growth and consequently poor color. Also the foliageon trees that are cultivated is usually more dense, which in itselfwill retard coloring by keeping off the sun. 4. Trees can be headed lower when grown in sod. This mayor may not be true. If the reasons for low heading alreadygiven are accepted, it probably makes little difference whether 80 ORCHARD CULTURE the trees are in sod or are cultivated. But with the commonlyaccepted notions about cultivation and height of heading, thecontention is probably correct. Few people who have done thework in an orchard fail to realize the value of the low tr
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