170 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



July. 1913 



Points on Cover Crops 



THE sowing of cover crops is now a 

 regular practice in up-to-date or- 

 chard management. This practice 

 serves a two-fold purpose. It maintains 

 the humus content of the soil and helps 

 to regulate the growth of the trees. 



Experience has proved that from 

 spring until about the middle of July, 

 constant cultivation is necessary for the 

 proper growth of the trees and the set- 

 ting of the fruit. Later in the season 

 the growth of the trees must be retarded 

 and the trees become fully dormant at 

 the end of the growing season, other- 

 wise winter injury is likely to occur. A 

 cover crop sown during July will as- 

 similate a part of the plant food in the 

 soil that would have been available for 

 the trees. This crop, when plowed un- 

 der in the fall or following spring, de- 

 cays and plant food and valuable humus 

 become available for the tree when most 

 needed. 



Cover crops may be classified under 

 two heads : those that collect free nitro- 

 gen from the air and those that do not. 

 In the former class are the colvers, al- 

 falfa, vetch, peas and beans. In the 

 latter are such crops as rape, buck- 

 wheat and rye. 



NITROGEiN OOLLEOTOEa 



Common and Mamoth Clovers are 

 probably the most generally and the 

 most successfully used cover crops that 

 we have. Ag a rule it is not difficult to 

 get a good catch. They give a good 

 growth the first season, live over the 

 winter, and produce a good growth the 

 following spring, which when plowed 

 down adds considerably to the nitrogen 

 content of the soil. If good growth has 

 been made the crop may be cut the first 

 season and allowed to rot on the ground, 

 provided it is cut early enough to permit 

 of sufficient growth being made after- 

 wards to tide it over the winter. A 

 seeding of twenty pounds an acre about 

 the middle of July generally gives best 

 results. 



Hairy Vetch is a close second to the 

 clovers. It produces a thick mat of 

 growth the first season, lives over the 

 winter, and grows very rapidly in the 

 spring. This last feature necessitates 

 early spring plowing, otherwise the crop 

 will drain too much plant food from the 

 trees. Thirty to forty pounds is an av- 

 erage seeding. Vetch is a good nitro- 

 gen gatherer but the seed is rather ex- 

 pensive. In a dry season it is some- 

 times difficult to get a good catch. 



Alfalfa, where it can be successfully 

 grown, has most of the qualifications of 

 a good cover crop Its one disadvantage 

 is that in the less favored sections it 

 does not produce as heavy a growth as 

 do the clovers and is more apt to winter 

 kill. In fovorable localities, seeded at 

 the rate of twenty to twenty-three^. 



pounds of seed an acre, it makes a good 

 growth the first season. 



Alsike Clover makes a good substitute 

 for the common and Mammoth varieties 

 in such localities as Eastern Ontario and 

 parts of Quebec. It does not require 

 quite as heavy a seeding as these varie- 

 ties. 



Crimson Clover does well in parts of 

 southern Ontario but is not as hardy as 

 the common or mammoth. Growers ad- 

 vocate a seeding of eighteen to twenty 

 pounds an acre. 



Peans and Beans can be grown to ad- 

 vantage as cover crops. Field peas 

 sown with a nurse crop of barley or oats 

 make a heavy growth. Such a crop, 

 however, does not survive the winter. 

 Soy beans and horse beans sometimes 

 give good results but have the same dis- 

 advantage. 



Where leguminous cover crops can be 

 successfully grown the second class is 



not recommended unless the soil is un- 

 usually rich in nitrogen. They are to 

 be recommended rather for the purpose 

 of enriching poor soils to make possi- 

 ble the growth of leguminous crops. 



Buckwheat is the most useful non- 

 Jeguminous cover crop we have. It 

 makes good growth on poor soils and a 

 catch can be obtained even when sown 

 quite late in the season. It is a splendid 

 crop for rapidly adding humus to the 

 soil. It does not, however, live over 

 winter. Five or six pecks of seed an 

 acre gives a good stand. 



Rye is a hardy crop but can only be 

 recommended as a soil enricher prepara- 

 tory to the sowing of clover. 



Rape is a good humus producer but 

 requires better soil conditions than does 

 buckwheat The tops die down in the 

 winter but some growth is made the 

 next spring in preparation for seed pro- 

 duction. Six pounds an acre is an aver- 

 age seeding. 



The Cultivation of Small Fruits 



Jos. Frappe, 



THE cultivation of the soil, for 

 strawberries and raspberries, to 

 loosen the top surface should be 

 commenced early in the season. For 

 small patches of strawberries a com- 

 mon garden rake will do. For large 

 patches I have used a wheeled hoe with 

 a rake attachment for each side. If this 

 is done there will be little danger of dry 

 weather killing the plants as is often 

 the case. 



A cultivation and hoeing about once 

 a week (especially in warm, moist wea- 

 ther when the weeds grow rapidly) is 

 much better than to wait two weeks. 

 The work is then easier, quicker, plea- 

 santer and far better for the plants. 



The up-to-date fruit grower or gar- 

 dener does not hoe just to kill weeds. 

 His first great object is to make a loose 

 layer of earths — a dust mulch, so that 

 the great quantities of water that are 

 stored in the earth, and which rise by 

 capillary action, may not escape by eva- 



Stirling, Ont. 



fKJration, but remain to supply the my- 

 riads of rootlets. Incidentally he kills 

 the weeds. From this point of view it 

 is obvious that the best time to culti- 

 vate is after a good rain. 



Cultivate shallow. Deep cultivation 

 dries out the ground. In hoeing after 

 the runners have freely started it will 

 pay to place them more in line with the 

 rows. When sufficient plants are form- 

 ed if the runners are kept trimmed, it 

 will give increased vigor to the plants 

 already formed. 



The blossoms should be removed the 

 first year. The strain of bearing fruit 

 is too much • for young plants. With 

 large strong plants and great care in 

 planting a few berries may be allowed 

 to mature. 



TASPBEREIES 



The red varieties of raspberries which 

 sucker freely (i.e., send up young 

 plants at different places along the 

 roots) have been with me, the most pro- 



Bush Fruiti ar* Profitable when Well Cared for 



