FARMERS' INSTITUTES, 27 



stitute a member of the general rotation. 



Where and what? In the early spring peas and oats, winter vetch. 



The summer crops for green manuring are cow peas, soy beans, field 

 peas and buckwheat. 



Late summer crops — Winter vetch, oats, peas, crimson clover. 



Fall crops — -Rye, wheat, peas. 



For instance, the corn field, instead of lying bare all winter, should 

 be sown at the last cultivation to rye, winter vetch or crimson clover. 

 If the field is to be sown to oats the following spring a mixture of oats 

 and peas, or peas alone, may serve as a catch crop and act as a valuable 

 winter mulch, while in the following spring it may be harrowed in with 

 a revolving harrow and the ground prepared for oats without plowing, 

 as is commonly practiced. 



Wheat and oats stubbles may be harrowed immediately after the 

 remova.l of the grain crop and sown to crimson or even red clover, if the 

 conditions of moisture are such as to promise a catch. If the clovers do 

 not succeed and the ground must lie barren until the following spring, 

 another harrowing will suffice to prepare the ground for a crop of rye, 

 or even wheat, to be used as green manure. 



The family garden reveals exposed places after each succeeding croj) 

 is harvested during the summer. These will be enriched, improved and 

 even beautified if sown to crimson clover. The orchard which has been 

 in cultivation up to the first or middle of July is much improved by 

 growing from then on, a crop of crimson clover as green manuring. 



The soy bean and the cow pea have been much praised as green 

 manuring crops and in their place they are worthy of much credit. These 

 plants are, however, strictly summer crops, and our cold climates do 

 not favor their growth as does their native climate and southern soil. 

 If opportunity is afforded for green manuring during the warm summer 

 months no better plant can be suggested than the cow peas, unless it 

 may be our native field peas, which, all things considered, may be fully 

 as safe to adopt as the cow pea until the latter has become more thor- 

 oughly tested. It must be borne in mind that the cow pea and the soy 

 bean are both very tender plants and readily succumb to the first ap- 

 proach of freezing temperatures. 



Instances have been recorded where injurious effects have followed 

 the practice of green manuring. Where a large crop of green, succulent 

 growth is turned under during warm weather there is danger of 

 forming within the soil an excess of organic acids, which will injure the 

 growth of young plants. To remedy this difficulty an application of a 

 small quantity of lime, say one ton to the acre, well harrowed into the 

 soil, will generally prove effectual. It is probably a better plan, though, 

 to plow some four or five weeks before the time for sowing the crop, in 

 which case there is generally very little danger from the acids formed. 



Green manuring in connection with general farming should supple- 

 ment the manures naturally produced in the stables, or, perhaps better, 

 the manure produced in the stables should supplement the green 

 manure. For it is readily seen that were we to depend on the growth of 

 green crops to improve our soil the richer portions of the field would 

 be improved in proportion to the natural fertility, thereby producing an 

 imperfect result. Therefore the stable manure should be placed on the 

 exposed and more exhausted places, thus working in harmony with tWe 

 green manure to produce a uniform fertilitj'. 



