280 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



multiplied by 15 for the value of each pound, gives the large sum of 

 113.50 as representing its value as a nitrogen collector. 



Common Bed clover would yield |11.70 worth, being slightly ahead of 

 Crimson clover. It has a larger percentage of root material and more 

 dry matter in the stems and leaves than Crimson. Mammoth clover 

 would stand next to Alfalfa in value of nitrogen from the leaves, sterns^ 

 and roots, with |13.00 approximately to its credit. 



Alfalfa or Lucerne is a plant of slender, upright growth, and does not 

 branch much if uncut. It does not, therefore, furnish as much leafy 

 covering to the surface of the soil as is afforded by the same number 

 of plants of Mammoth clover, which stool out better and are naturally 

 more branching in habit of growth than the straight-stemmed Alfalfa 

 clover. This plant does very well on sandy soils. It seems able to pene- 

 trate the hardest subsoils and maintain itself where Crimson clover 

 would make a very weak growth. 



Crimson clover will, I fear, in this locality, serve only one of the ends 

 for which it is sown, viz. : that of keeping down weeds and adding to the 

 fertility of the soil without protecting it very much during the winter. 

 It is possible that selected strains of Northern-bred- seed may be produced 

 that will give plants capable of withstanding the severity of our northern 

 winters. A desirable field for patient and painstaking work presents 

 itself in connection with this. On light and poor sandy soil this variety 

 makes a very weak growth. 



Common Eed clover possesses no advantage over the Mammoth Red, 

 and is a weaker grower. 



Mammoth Red clover, I am of opinion, will prove the most satisfactory 

 cover-crop for all the apple- and pear-growing sections. Good seed ger- 

 minates promptly; the plant soon takes and holds possession of the 

 ground to the exclusion of weeds; it is fairly deep rooted; covers the 

 ground with a good mat in the autumn, and begins to grow at a moder- 

 ately low temperature in spring. A block of six acres of this clover, 

 sown July 10, in one of the apple orchards, had produced an ideal pro- 

 tective covering when covered by snow this autumn. The best kind of 

 cover-crop for one section may prove quite unsuited to another section 

 differing from the first in soil and climatic conditions. Not only is tnis 

 true, but it should be remembered further that the peculiarities of each 

 class of fruit should be carefully studied before the orchardist decides 

 upon his method of procedure. 



DISCUSSION. 



Prof. Craig: Now, I have put a chart up here to which I would like 

 to draw your attention. It is just to emphasize the fact that while the 

 tree is growing the amount of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and polat^h 

 which it draws from the soil are more or less equal, but as soon as that 

 tree comes into bearing the amounts of these fertilizing materials draAvu 

 from the soil vary a great deal. You will see on the chart at the top, 

 under references '^nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and i)otash", at the end of 

 each, small dots. Now, those dots are comparative. They show the 

 amount of nitrogen which the leaves take from the soil, as compared with 



