Rotations, Manuring and Fertilizing 47 



clover during the following winter, and plant straw- 

 berries in the spring.'' 



When the area is very limited and it is desired to keep 

 half of it in strawberries each year, Matthew Crawford, 

 of Ohio, advises that buckwheat be seeded after the crop 

 is harvested. This is plowed under and followed with 

 rye, which is turned early enough in the spring to set 

 strawberries. Cowpeas might be substituted for buck- 

 wheat in the South. 



In the South. 



The long growing season of the South makes it pos- 

 sible to introduce more soil-improving crops, and thus 

 shorten the rotation. One of the best methods of quickly 

 improving poor land in Delaware and Maryland for straw- 

 berries, is to sow cowpeas in May, plow them under in 

 early August and follow with crimson clover. This 

 land is ready for strawberries the next spring. If pos- 

 sible, a crop that cleans the land of weeds, such as Irish 

 potatoes, sweet potatoes or tomatoes, should precede 

 strawberries. If the potatoes are harvested too late to 

 seed crimson clover, rye may be substituted. C. A. 

 McCue, of Delaware, suggests this rotation: "First 

 and second years, strawberries; third year, strawberries 

 followed by crimson clover or cowpeas; fourth year, 

 crimson clover turned under and land set to tomatoes, 

 sweet corn or snap beans. At the last cultivation of these 

 crops seed twenty pounds of crimson clover an acre, or 

 hairy vetch. The fifth year the land may come in straw- 

 berries again; thus they occupy the land three years 

 out of four." 



In the Ozark district, a frequent result of plowing 

 under red clover is a big volunteer crop; hence, clover 



