Orchard Cover Crops in Delaware. 203 



than the clover. On the manured part they stood the winter well and started 

 off in pretty good shape in the spring, but came to a standstill and then be- 

 came poorer in April. 



Hairy vetch 20 pounds and crimson clover 71/, pounds per acre. — Both the 

 vetch and clover germinated very well and gave an early promise of success, 

 but they deteriorated in October and very little was left by spring. In a few 

 spots there was a spring growth of clover from 2 to 8 inches and of vetch 

 from 4 to 10 inches April 24. 



Hairy vetch 40 pounds and rye 30 pounds per acre. — There was a gi>od 

 start of both crops and a good promise of each until January. They came 

 through the winter in very poor condition and were worthless in the spring. Tlie 

 plot was manured in 1901 and although its influence was apparent in the fall. 

 as compared with unmauured plots, no further benefit seemed to follow. 



Canada peas 1 bushel and red clover 7 pounds per acre. — The Canada peas 

 were like those grown at the Experiment Station, of no consequence whatever. 

 The pea aphids were much worse here than at the Experiment Station aud no 

 doubt killed many of the plants. 



The clover was very good the first week in October, but by the end of the 

 month it was poor. A portion wintered all right and the spring growth on 

 one-half of the plot was fairly good March 25. A month later the crop was 

 very poor except in a few spots. 



Canada peas 2 bushels and rye y.^ bushel per acre. — The Canada peas were 

 like those mentioned above. 



The rye made a brave beginning, but soon began to fail so that only scat- 

 tering plants were left the first of November. A little lived over winter, but 

 formed no protection to the ground. 



Cowhorn turnips li/, pounds per acre. — There was a thin stand to ijegin 

 with and a very poor growth so that the crop was an entire failure. Had the 

 turnips been tried on one of the first six plots they no doubt would have done 

 very well. 



EXPERIMENTS AT WOODSIDE IN 1902-3. 



A portion of the plum orchard used this year was in the experiment last 

 year. There were 5 half-acre plots in this orchard and 8 half-acre plots in a 

 young peach orchard. The soil is a sandy loam well supplied with humus from 

 plowing under crimson clover for a number of years. For this reason either 

 rape, rye or turnips was used in nearly every plot in combination witli a legu- 

 minous crop, since it was desired to have a good cover, but still not necessarily 

 add too much nitrogen to the soil. The ground was fitted up in good shape and 

 the seed for these crops was sown August 9, 1902. The first 8 plots which 

 follow in the discussion were in the peach orchard ; the last 5 were in the 

 plum orchard. 



Alfalfa 15 pounds and hairy vetch 8 pounds per acre. — Tlie alfalfa made a 

 fine showing; there was an excellent stand and a growth of 6 to 12 inches 

 October 23. It was injured somewhat by the winter, and the stand was not 

 very good in the spring. The plants were 6 to 8 inches high April 23. 



In this plot the vetch was also good and made satisfactory development. 

 The two crops made a most excellent cover for the ground, aud were the best 

 of any of the crops in this portion of the experiment. The vetch was more 

 hardy than the alfalfa and by April 24 it had made a growth of G to 8 inches. 

 This is a splendid combination for cover crop purposes. 



Alfalfa 15 pounds and mammoth clover ly.^ pounds per acre. — On this plot 

 the alfalfa did not do so well as on the one just mentioned. The growth was 

 just the same, but the stand was not quite so good. This was true during the 

 entire season. 



There was a pretty good stand of clover, but not much growth was made 

 in the fall. In the spring it was uneven, in some places it was bunched aud 

 in other places there was none. The bunched portion formed a thick cover ; 



