120 Peach-Growing 



cipitation where the trees habitually go into the winter 

 with but a very low content of moisture in the soil, cover- 

 crops ordinarily should not be used. To sow them would 

 be still further to reduce an already small supply of soil- 

 moisture (in case the seed germinated and grew), which 

 might easily prove disastrous to the trees from their drying 

 out unduly during the winter and dying as a result. 



In some regions where peaches are an important crop but 

 where the precipitation is habitually limited and no pos- 

 sibility of irrigation, the growers are facing a serious dilemma 

 in that there is not sufficient rainfall to maintain the trees 

 and grow a green-manure crop at the same time, yet they 

 are facing the disastrous effects of a depleted supply of humus 

 in the soil. 



Cover-crops or green-manure crops fall into two distinct 

 groups — leguminous and non-leguminous. The plants com- 

 monly used for the former include : cowpeas, soybeans, 

 field peas, red clover, crimson clover, bur clover, bitter clover 

 (Melilotus indica), hairy or winter vetch, and occasionally 

 others. The more common non-leguminous cover- and 

 green-manure crops are : rye, oats, buckwheat, rape, cow- 

 horn turnips, millet, cane, corn, and some others. Which 

 one or ones of these crops a grower should use in his orchard 

 depends on the needs of the soil and other conditions. 



The leguminous crops are nitrogen-gatherers. If more 

 nitrogen is needed in the soil, as is very generally the case, 

 a crop of this group obviously should be chosen. On the 

 other hand, if the objects for which the crop is needed in the 

 orchard do not include an increased nitrogen supply, one 

 of the non-leguminous crops will serve the purpose. Some- 

 times a combination of the two types, as rye and vetch, is 

 used to good advantage. 



