EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS 111 



Considerable attention was also x>aid to the subject of cover crops 

 for orchards. A nine year old orchard was cultivated at frequent 

 intervals up to the middle of August, when it was divided into tenth 

 acre plots, which were sown to the following cover crops: (1) crimson 

 clover, (2) crimson clover and oats, (3) oats, (4) rape, (5) rape and 

 crimson clover, (6) rape and oats, (7) flat turnips and (8) flat turnips and 

 oats. 



A fair stand was secured with all of them and a good growth 

 was made during the fall. All except the crimson clover were killed 

 down during the winter and this was turned under about the middle 

 of May, before the ground had become dry. The winter and spring were 

 unusualh' favorable for this crop, as it is generally more or less injured 

 in the winter and it seldom happens that the weather in the spring 

 is sufficiently moist to make it safe to delay plowing until May 15, as 

 was the case this spring. Like rye and other winter crops, considerable 

 harm is often done by leaving crimson clover until it has blossomed. 

 Especially upon heavy soil, it causes the land to dry out and bake, so 

 that the injury to the growth of the trees is greater than the benefit 

 from the increased growth of the clover. 



Of the crops tested, clover is the only one that returns to the soil 

 anything in the way of plant food that was not taken up from it by the 

 crop itself, and even though the clover is not killed out by the winter, 

 which has been the case one year in two, the amount secured will not be 

 large. The oats grew to a height of from fifteen to eighteen inches 

 and su]tplied a large amount of humus to the soil. They also served 

 well the ]»urpose of holding the snow and leaves and thus lessening 

 the freezing and thawing of the soil, as well as the depth to which the 

 frost could penetrate. While there are few soils that are not benefited 

 by the reph^uishing of their humus, it is the effect of cover crops in 

 lessening the injury from frost that is even more vital in its importance. 

 ^^'hen clover was sown with the oats, the results were less satisfactory 

 as, when the oats were thick enough to be of any value themselves, or 

 as a nurse croj) for the clover, the catch of the clover was not as good 

 as when it was sown alone. The same was true when the clover was 

 sown witli rape. 



Kai)e and turnijts furnished considerable fiber and the former was 

 high enough to hold the snow, but they were rather unsightly and 

 gave off an offensiAe odor during the winter. 



A noticeable feature, wlum it came time to plow the land in the 

 spring, was that the plots where oats were sown alone were vei-y free 

 from weeds and the ground remained moist considerably longer than 

 where the other crops were used, making it possible to put off the 

 working of the orchards in the spi'ing considerably longer, besides 

 lengthening the i)eriods between the cultivations. In the sjtring. the 

 oals are in such a condition that thev can be dragged in with a disk 

 harrow, and a i)low will not be necessary. It is estimated that the 

 cost of cultivating an orchard when a cover crop of oats is used, is 

 fullv one-third less than when crimson clover has been sown. 



