The Bulletin. 9 



Of course, the advisability and tlie possibility of fall plowing will 

 depend upon the rotation practiced. In case corn follows cotton it will 

 be obviously impossible to plow the land in the fall in time to sow a 

 cover crop for green manure. Under the circumstances it will gener- 

 ally be better to sow tlie cover crop in tlie cotton some time in September 

 or the latter part of August and let it get a good start before the hard 

 freezes of winter come. A crop sown thus early will make a much better, 

 more thrifty, and earlier growth in the spring than one sown just before 

 cold weather sets in. 



In the spring the green crop, together with the old cotton stalks, 

 should be thoroughly cut to pieces with a sharp disc harrow and plowed 

 under some six or eight inches deep. Spring plowing of heavy soils is 

 rarely advisable when the rotation will admit of fall plowin:^ unless 

 the land needs an annual application of some cheap form of vrg;i"aic 

 matter to improve its physical condition. 



Rotations in which corn followed wheat, oats, or clover and grass, the 

 land can, and generally should be, fall plowed and sowed to some cover 

 crop. 



Where a heavy clover and grass sod is to be turned under the plow- 

 ing should be done rather late in the fall, say after the first killing 

 frost, when the various insect pests have done depositing eggs. Late 

 plowing of these sod lands, after vegetation has ceased to grow and 

 furnish hiding places for the eggs of insects, will destroy great num- 

 bers of the eggs and larvae of these pests and rid the land the next season 

 of the great army of cut-worms and wire-worms that usually infest corn- 

 fields on land that has been seeded down to meadow or pasture for a 

 few years. It will generally be unnecessary to put a cover crop on 

 newly broken sod lands, as the soil is supposed to be full already of 

 organic matter in the form of clover and grass roots. 



SEEDING THE COVER CROP. 



"We have heard a great deal said about the winter cover crop ; that 

 it kept the soil from washing, added humus, and conserved the soluble 

 nitrates. ]^ow, the cover crop will do all these things, and more, only 

 in case it is sowed early enough to make some growth in the fall. 



It will be recalled that plants take up and conserve plant food only 

 while they are growing. It will be remembered, also, that these winter 

 cover crops make little or no growth between November and April, 

 during which time no soluble food left over from the crop of the pre- 

 vious season is being taken up and conserved. Moreover, when the 

 cover crop is sown late no material growth occurs before spring, and 

 not only is the object of conserving plant food defeated, but the soil is 

 thus allowed to wash as badly as if no crop had been sown, due to the 

 fact that the small plants have not had an opportunity to develop a suffi- 

 ciently large root system to bind the soil particles and hold them in 

 place. It is obvious, therefore, that the cover crop should be sown early 



