144 Peach-Growing 



fall when the new wood should ripen for winter, and the like. 

 Perhaps on account of the physical characteristics of a 

 number of the legumes commonly used, they may accom- 

 plish these ends more completely than most of the non- 

 leguminous ones that are generally used for these purposes. 



Though the nitrogen supplied through the leguminous 

 crops is very much more often needed than otherwise, there 

 are conditions when plants of this other group are exceed- 

 ingly useful. The more important non-leguminous crops 

 with which the orchardist has to do in this connection are 

 here mentioned, together with their special points of use- 

 fulness. 



Rye. 



Undoubtedly rye is the most extensively and widely used 

 non-leguminous plant for orchard cover- and green-manure 

 purposes. Generally speaking it may be used in all the 

 peach-growing regions, yet as a grain crop it is of much 

 greater importance in the eastern half of the United States 

 than in the western, though but little grown in the far 

 South. It is often used on very poor soils as a forerunner 

 of legumes, most of which require a soil moderately well 

 supplied with humus. 



It may be sowed late in the season if so desired; it re- 

 mains green throughout the winter, even growing more or 

 less in the milder sections ; it starts very early in the spring, 

 making rapid growth, hence furnishing a good supply of 

 herbage to plow under as soon as it is desirable to resume 

 tillage. It thus meets well nearly every need of a winter 

 soil cover. 



It is said that, as a general rule, seeding broadcast or 

 with a drill, using 1| to 2 bushels of seed to the acre, may be 



