458 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN, 



available in the soil. The prices of legume seeds vary from four to five 

 cents for certain peas and vetches, and from ten cents for sweet clover 

 up to forty cents per pound for white clover seed. 



For a detailed study of the various legumes we must examine the 

 various bulletins at our leisure and consider the conditions of cover 

 crops during the past year. This data has been gathered chiefly from 

 the Report of Observations made by the Eiverside Experiment Station. 

 In the districts investigated only one-fourth of the citrus acreage was 

 planted to cover crops; in Redlands, Corona, Whittier and Ventura 

 County about 50 per cent of the heavier soils, but only ten per cent of the 

 lighter soils of Eedlands, Fullerton and Placentia; the foothill section 

 from Upland west, the Riverside section and the Santa Ana-Tustin dis- 

 trict show some 25 per cent; but note that of all this, one-half was 

 planted to rye, barley or other cereals instead of to legumes. 



The reasons — or better the excuses — for this small acreage, include the 

 recent failure in obtaining stands that would seem to warrant the labor 

 and expense of growing such crops. The heavy crops of vetch and 

 Canada field peas and fenugreek of former years have in the past few 

 years been the exception, and consequently gave place to cereal crops. 

 There seems to be a lamentable lack of appreciation of the value of 

 green manure in fertilization. 



Some reasons for failure in such culture are apparent: The seeding 

 is frequently too late; if planted in September, all varieties do better, 

 and the Melilotus especially has good germination and produces a heavy 

 tonnage. Care must be taken in procuring the seed. Poor seed begets 

 poor stands. Also for the past few seasons the vetch and pea crops in 

 certain localities have been seriously attacked by aphids and much acre- 

 age destroyed. At present the remedy for this evil would seem to lie in 

 planting the more resistant varieties of legumes. The two plants that 

 the station experiments would seem to recommend are the purple vetch 

 {Vicia attro purpurea) and sour clover {Melilotus indica). 



When it comes to the advisability of planting mixed crops — the 

 legumes with cereals as a nurse crop, supposedly for the double purpose 

 of giving shade and support for the legume and of furnishing a greater 

 amount of organic matter — opinions vary even among experimenters. 

 Doubtless both these methods should be tested more thoroughly. The 

 latest experiments seem to indicate that the legume should be planted 

 alone. One observer calls the "nurse crop" a "choke crop," stating 

 that while in a few cases of mixed crops there may be a slight increase 

 of tonnage, the cereal would have a less nitrogenous effect upon the soil 

 and of ttimes the ' ' nurse ' ' crop smothers and almost destroys the growth 

 of the legume. 



The station at Riverside, after a general visit to the groves and station 

 experiments, has set forth the comparative growth and weights of 

 various legumes. This study seems to show that the varieties longest 

 in use have somewhat deteriorated and new kinds of legumes give the 

 larger yield. The sour clover and the purple vetch have given good 

 results when properly handled. Melilotus has been planted generally 

 for the first time this season and successfully, upon all types of soil in 

 AAadely separated districts ; when planted early and thoroughly irrigated 

 an excellent growth was obtained; its tonnage often surpassed that of 

 cereal crops grown under like conditions, while nurse crops proved 



