138 Peach-Growing 



in many instances to mix the peas with oats or rye — the 

 latter in the North where a spring growth is desired. Where 

 this is done, about 1 bushel to the acre of the small grain is 

 used with 1 to 2 bushels of peas, depending on the size of 

 the seed. 



Red clover. 



With red clover may be considered also Alsike clover. 

 Mammoth clover, and types of similar habits of growth and 

 characteristics. These clovers are grown principally in a ter- 

 ritory east of eastern Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota, 

 and north of the southern boundary of Virginia, Kentucky, 

 and Missouri. This area includes roughly somewhat more 

 than the northeastern quarter of the United States. Small 

 quantities are grown in the northwest and in other parts of 

 the country, but in these districts the total is inconsiderable. 



While these clovers, especially red clover, make a most 

 excellent cover- and green-manure crop under some condi- 

 tions, especially in apple orchards, it may be questioned 

 whether they have any place as a rule in peach orchards. 

 In habit of growi:h the roots of these plants are biennials, 

 that is, they live two seasons. Therefore, they are likely not 

 to make very much growth if seeded in midseason after 

 orchard tillage ceases, nor do they grow rapidly enough in 

 the spring to permit of very much growth before tillage should 

 be resumed. It is in orchards where a mulch-crop is desired 

 that the biennial clovers find their greatest usefulness in 

 orchard maintenance. As indicated in the chapter on till- 

 age, it is rarely that a peach orchard should be grown under 

 the mulch system. However, in exceptional cases in which 

 the trees are making too much growth or when the reduc- 

 tion of the expense of maintenance is imperative, a mulch- 



