778 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



rye. They should be sown not later than August 10 in order to obtain sufficient 

 growth to catch and hol<l the snow during the winter. 



From the experience of two w inters, the author is firmly of the opinion that much 

 of the winterkilling of fruit trees in Wisconsin can be prevented by the aid of cover 

 crops. 



A side lig-ht on cover crops, U. P. Hedrick | Rural New Yorker, 43 (1904), No. 

 2862, /». 858, figs. .')■ — An experiment was made to determine the relationship between 

 various herbaceous plants used as cover crops and the peach. The tests were made 

 in lii-in. pots. 



It was found that when certain plants, like oats, blue L r rass, mustard, and potatoes, 

 were used as cover crops for seedling peaches, the trees ripened their wood long 

 before there was sufficient frost to injure the foliage. When, however, such plants 

 as crimson clover, peas, and beans were used as cover crops, the leaves remained on 

 the trees green and luxuriant until killed by severe Erosf November 1. These 

 legumes proved a perfect failure so far as ripening the wood and preparing the trees 

 for winter were concerned. 



An examination of the root growth in the various pots showed that the root sys- 

 tems of the trees and the plants in the first-named group were not at all intimate. 

 "The roots of the 2 plants scarcely came in contact with each other, but the roots of 

 the clover and the peach were so intermingled that they were matted together, and 

 could not be easily separated." 



The practical side of the question seems to be that legumes are not good cover 

 crops when the object is to cause trees to ripen their wood. The author is of the 

 opinion "that peach trees would suffer more in a cold winter with a legume as a 

 cover crop than without a catch crop of any kind. The experience of peach growers 

 confirms this opinion. For a cover crop to hasten the maturity of the tree, instead 

 of a legume, one of the cereals, as oats or rye, would certainly answer the purpose 

 much better." 



Preliminary report on cranberry investigations, A. R. Wititsox et al. 

 {Wisconsin Sta. Rpt. 1904, pp. 220-242, figs. 5). — General consideration is here given 

 to the conditions required for cranberry growing, the soils on which they succeed 

 best, water supply, amount and kind of water to be used, storage of water, depth of 

 water in reservoirs, loss of water by seepage and evaporation, location of reservoirs, 

 size of flooding ditches and location of reservoir with reference to planted ground, 

 drainage of the plantation, protection from frost, weeds and methods of dealing with 

 them, cranberry diseases, varieties, and methods of harvesting and keeping. It is 

 proposed to publish a bulletin on this subject which will take up various agricultural 

 phases more in detail. 



Relative to soil, the author states that peat soil is by far the most desirable. An 

 experiment is noted in which an attempt was made to determine the effect of lime 

 carbonate in the water on cranberries. A thin layer of marl was spread over part of 

 one of the plats in the early part of the summer. Up to the time of writing no 

 influence was apparent in the growth of the vines or yield of berries as a result of 

 this application. 



In the construction or reservoirs it was found that "where 2 cuttings of peat were 

 removed and the peat over sand was thereby reduced to a thickness of from 6 in. to 

 2 ft., the loss by seepage amounted to about .'! in. per day, when the depth of the 

 water was 3 ft." It is believed that the loss of water by evaporation is greater 

 when the reservoir is filled with vegetation than where only the free water is 

 exposed. 



Preliminary experiments in drainage indicate that when the water is kept in the 

 ditches at a depth of (i in. below the surface of the ground better results are secured 

 than when the water is level with the surface of the ground or held 18 in. below it. 

 Considering, however, the growth of noxious vegetation, as well as other factors, it 



