igi6 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page I 'J 



is not very rich in the elements of 

 plant food. For instance, tit) pounds of 

 nitrate of soda furnishes as much nitro- 

 gen as a ton of ordinary horse manure; 

 20 pounds of muriate of potash fur- 

 nishes as much potash as a ton of ordi- 

 nary horse manure, and 2a pounds of 

 ground bone furnishes as much phos- 

 phoric acid as a ton of ordinary horse 

 manure. I can readily point to a number 

 of orchards which have shown very 

 plainly the beneficial results from barn- 

 yard manure, due probably more to 

 the beneficial physical effect upon the 

 soil than to the comparatively small 

 addition of plant food. However, barn- 

 yard manure is expensive, especially 

 if we have to haul it from town, and 

 we cannot all get it in sutFicient quan- 

 tities. Therefore we must turn to other 

 sources of organic matter. This brings 

 us to a consideration of cover crops. 

 By a proper system of cover or manure 

 crops we can undoubtedly furnish the 

 required humus more cheaply than in 

 any other way. In fact the negligent 

 grower, as we used to call him, who 

 allowed the weeds to grow in his 

 orchard every fall and worked them 

 into the soil in the spring and contin- 

 ued this practice year after year has 

 today very much better soil conditions 

 than the grower who has scrupulously 

 clean cultivated over the same period. 

 The weeds have not added any fertility 

 to the soil, but they have kept the soil 

 in better physical condition. Wheat 

 and rye arc sometimes used with bene- 

 ficial results, especially on light or 

 sandy soils which are likely to shift 

 with the spring winds. But these, like 

 the weeds, add no fertility, simply put 



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SOLUBLE SULPHUR 



(COMPOUND) 



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back -what they have taken from the 

 .soil. It i.s no-w a matter of common 

 agricultural knowledge that there i.s a 

 family of plants known as the legumes 

 that (Ic) have the power of adding fer- 

 tility in the form of nitrogen to the 

 soil. Since nitrogen is the element of 

 fertility that is most likely to be lack- 

 ing in most of our soils and is the ele- 

 ment that is the most expensive to buy, 

 and since \vc find among the legumes 

 |)lants that are suitable in many other 

 respects for cover or manure crops, it 

 is natural to expect that we should find 

 our most suitaljle cover-crop plants in 

 this family. 



Red clover has long been used as a 

 green manure crop and is highly recom- 

 mended in general farming districts for 

 such purposes. It has been (luite gen- 

 erally recommended for an orchard 

 cover crop and has been quite ex- 

 tensively used in the fruit districts for 

 that purpose. However, results from 

 its use as an orchard cover crop, at 

 least in the Wenatchee district, have 

 not proven generally satisfactory, espe- 

 cially where the clover has been 

 allowed to remain in the orchard for 

 two years or more. This same appear- 

 ance of starvation as described above 

 usually becomes very apparent after 

 clover has been in the orchard for two 

 years or more. I could cite numerous 

 instances of Ibis condition. Red clover 

 is a shallow-rooted plant. II lakes its 

 supply of water and food from the 

 first two or three feet of soil ri.ght in 

 competition with the feeding roots of 



the tree. While I have no exact meas- 

 urements of water used it is conceded 

 by practically all that have had clover 

 in the orchard that it requires an 

 excessive amount of water. I believe 

 that the generally poor results from 

 the use of clover are due to the diffi- 

 culty of keeping a proper degree of 

 soil moisture. 



Hairy vetch has a good deal in its 

 favor as a cover crop. It is one of the 

 best nitrogen gatherers, it produces a 

 great mass of vegetative matter and 

 reseeds itself year after year. Orchards 

 that have continued the proper use of 

 vetch year after year show excellent 

 results from its use. I understand that 

 the price of vetch seed at the present 

 time is proliibitive. 



I consider alfalfa far superior to any 

 other crop that we now use for cover 

 crop or green manure purposes in our 

 orciiards. Alfalfa produces an im- 

 mense mass of vegetative matter, not 

 only above ground but also below. I 

 believe that it is unexcelled in this 

 respect by any other crop that we can 

 grow in our orchards and, as explained 

 above, it is vegetative matter in the 

 soil that we need more than anything 

 else. Alfalfa is a soil renovator. It is 

 a more successful soil renovator than 

 plow or harrow, or even dynamite. No 

 plow sole forms in an alfalfa field nor 

 in an orchard sowed to alfalfa. Alfalfa 

 roots penetrate the soil to the depth of 

 20, 3n or 10 feet and have been known 

 to go down to a depth of 127 feet. The 

 decaying roots and side laterals of the 



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