July, 1912 



THE CANADIAN HORTlCULTtRiSt 



165 



A Cover Crop of Clover in the Orchard of S. Carruthers, Oakville, Ont. 



in with surface earth, and when the soil 

 is hard with a hardpan. I think that a 

 person would be well repaid for the ex- 

 tra expense in planting. 



The holes are made with an augur 

 made for the purpose or with a well 

 sharpened crowbar. A hole can be put 



dovvn thirty inches in a very few min- 

 utes. The dynamite that is used for this 

 purpose costs thirteen cents a pound and 

 one-quarter of a pound is sutficient for 

 one hole. Caps cost one cent and fuse 

 about one cent, making a total cost of 

 about six cents a tree. 



Cover Crops for the Orchard 



Prof. C. A. Zavitz, 



DURING the past twenty years, a 

 large amount of experimental work 

 has been conducted in the different 

 uses of farm crops. This is particularly 

 true in the uses which have been made 

 of farm crops other than the production 

 of grain or of fodder in the regular way. 

 The terms "cover crop," "green manure 

 crop," and "catch crop," have become 

 quite familiar in our regular agricultural 

 operations. The term "green manure" 

 is used when a crop is plowed under for 

 the object of enriching the soil. That of 

 "catch crop" is used when a crop is 

 grown between the regular periods of 

 two ordinary crops so as to make the 

 best possible use of the land, and the 

 term "cover crop" is used to apply to 

 those crops which are sown in mid- 

 summer to cover the land during the 

 latter part of summer and the autumn, 

 and frequently during the winter and the 

 early spring. 



LOSS OF PLANT FOOD 



A few years ago the use of the hare 

 summer fallow was general throughout 

 Ontario. It was thought by many far- 

 mers that the bare fallow was absolutely 

 necessary in order to kill the weeds, to 

 liberate plant food in the soil, to preserve 

 soil moisture, and to thus furnish a pro- 

 per seed bed to the following crop, es- 

 pecially winter wheat. Investigations 

 carried on at our Agricultural College at 

 Ouelph and at other institutions show 

 that there is a danger of a considerable 

 loss of soluble plant food by means of 



O. A. C, Guelph, Ont 



the drainage water from the bare sum- 

 mer fallow. 



The writer made determinations at the 

 Ontario Agricultural College several 

 years ago, in which the drainage water 

 was collected, measured ,and analysed 

 monthly from each of six different soils 

 in each of three or four years. The soils 

 were divided into three groups, each 

 group consisting of three samples. In 

 one group, the soils were sand, clay, and 

 loam, which were cropped continually. 

 In the other group, the soils viere all 

 loam, one being cropped constantly and 

 the other two were bare fallow and win- 

 ter wheat alternately. Careful determin- 

 ations were made of the amount of rain- 

 fall each month and of the drainage 

 water passing through the different soils. 



THE RESULTS 



It was found that the loam soil which 

 was used as a bare summer fallow fur- 

 nished a greater amount of drainage 

 water than the combined amount pro- 

 duced by the other five lots of soil. It 

 was also found that the drainage water 

 from the summer fallow was richer in 

 soluble plant food than the drainage 

 water from any of the other soils. It 

 was found, moreover, that the percent- 

 age of plant food in the drainage water 

 from the bare summer fallow increased 

 from month to month during the summer 

 and the autumn, or in fact until the 

 ground became frozen. 



These results were both interesting 

 and suggestive. The present practice of 



Ontario farmers in discarding, to a great 

 extent, bare summer fallow and instead 

 cultivating the land in the early part of 

 the season, and sowing a cover crop in 

 the middle of summer, has many advan- 

 tages on the ordinary farm, and especi- 

 ally on the fruit farm. 



COVER CROPS FOE THE ORCHARD 



It has become the practice by a num- 

 laer of our best growers to cultivate the 

 soil during the early part of the season 

 and to sow a cover crop in the orchard 

 about the middle of summer, usually in 

 the month of July. This system has 

 many advantages. From what has al- 

 ready been said, it will be seen that there 

 is likely to be very much less waste in 

 soluble plant food esecially the nitrates 

 in leaching through the soils and being 

 wasted in the drainage wattr. 



If leguminous crops are used, the soil 

 is likely to be considerably enriched in 

 nitrogen through the influence of the 

 nitrogen gathering plants. These advan- 

 tages would prove almost equally true, 

 whether in connection with ordinary 

 farming or with fruit growing. In con- 

 nection with fruit farming, however, 

 there are several other advantages, such 

 as the checking of the growth of the 

 trees so that the wood can become ripen- 

 ed and somewhat hardened before the 

 winter season, the protection of the roots 

 of the trees during the winter, and the 

 better control of soil moisture. 



By means of the cover crops, the 

 amount of humus in the soil is consider- 

 ably increased, which, not only increases 

 the amount of the plant food in the soil, 

 but also greatly increases the power c^f 

 the land to retain moisture and makes 

 the soil more friable and less liable to 

 bake and form cracks on the surface in 

 the hot, dry weather. The humus con- 

 tent of the soil has also a marked influ- 

 ence in giving the proper environment 

 for bacterial development and in the pro- 

 motion of nitrification. It might safely 

 be stated that the proper use of cover 

 crops improves the chemical, the bac- 

 terial, and the physical properties of the 

 soil, each of which has its own value. 



KINDS OF COVER CROPS 



No cover crops will prove the best 

 under all circumstances. The kinds 

 which are selected for the best results on 

 any farm will depend considerably on the 

 particular requirements, and on the local 

 conditions. 



In some instances, it may be desirable 

 to have a cover crop which can be sown 

 in July and which can be plowed under in 

 the autumn. In such cases, buckwheat, 

 rape, common field peas, or soy beans 

 might be mentioned as likely to be 

 amongst the best. Of these, the peas 

 and the soy beans arc leguminous crops 

 and would be of the most value in en- 

 riching the soil. In an experiment which 

 was conducted at Guelph on four differ- 



