The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1911-10-04
I0WA'S EXPERIMENTAL
POTTAWATTAmIE COUNTY
APPLE ORCHARD

Il apple growing can be put on a
sure and profitable basis in Iowa,
the horticulture and soil experiment.
.slists of the Iowa State college have
determined to find out how.
To this end the Iowa Experiment
station has leased an old twenty
three acre orchard in Pottawattamie
county, four miles east of Council
Bluffs, for period of ten years. Dur
ing that time, the various methods
of orchard cultivation will be prac-
ticed under college supervision, with
Laurenz Greene, experimentalist, in
charge. The trees will be properly
pruned as soon as possible, the
ground underneath will be divided
into plots and subjected to different
methods of soil cultivation; in the
spring of the year, an organized
fight on frost will be made with the
best oil heater equipment; in the
spraying season, the trees will be
given thorough treatment for the
destruction of apple pests; in the fall
the fruit will be harvested in the
most efficient manner and marketed
III a business like way.
Books upon every phase Of the ex-
pertinent will be carefully kept. so
that in the course of few years it
may be pretty definitely gathered
whether scientific orcharding can be
made to pay in Iowa as we'll as in the
Pacific coast states and elsewhere,
and what methods are most success
full.
The orchard that has been chosen
is fairly representative of the or
chards in the apple growing districts
of southwestern Iowa. 1t has had
about the same sort Of treatment as
most orchards and has been no more
or less successful than most or
chards. 1t was chosen because it
gave an opportunity to show what
may be done with any orchard in
the southwestern sections of the
state.
An important feature Of the expert
ment will be the study of the soils
and their content as they are put
under different methods of cultiva-
ton. Only very few orchardists in
Iowa realize the Importance of the
humus, moisture and plant food con-
tent of the soil to successful apple
growing. Most apple orchard soils
are sorely abused. They are robbed
of their fertility year after year and
nothing is done to return it. In this
experiment, the orchard has been
divided into six plots, each including
the same variety of trees. Four dif-
ferent treatments will be given the
soil. The first will be seeded to clover
and plowed up every second year and
again seeded to clover. All the clover
will be moved and allowed to remain
on the ground as a mulch. The sec
ond plot will be thoroughly cult
waited each year until midsummer
and then seeded to some cover crop
of some legume, which will be al
lowed to grow and be plowed under
the next spring. The third plot will
be subject to clean cultivation
throughout the summer. The fourth
plot is seeded to blue grass, which
will be cut and allowed to remain
on the soil as mulch, but unlike
the clover plot, will not be plowed
The other two plots will be treated
as the first and second. -.
The effect of these methods of cul-
tivation on the soil will be determine
Ell by the soils section of the expert
ment station at the college. The
effect on the trees will be determined
by careful measurements of growth,
ETC., and study of trees and fruit
conditions.