THE NOVA SCOTIA FRUIT GROWERS. 



97 



barrel of that variety ; they had all been 

 shipped away. 



Cover Crops was the subject of an address 

 by Prof. Shutt, whose address is summariz- 

 ed as follows, - 



There was perhaps no subject more prom- 

 inent before fruit growers to-day than that 

 of cover crops. The conditions were very 

 exceptional when a profitable orchard could 

 be kept in sod. 



It was now quite generally conceded that 

 a system of clean culture and cover crops 

 was the best treatment that could be given 

 the commercial orchard. 



There is no cast iron rule about thissystem; 

 the practice may be intelligently modified 

 according to soil, climate and size of trees, 

 etc. 



What is the usual plan ? The orchard is 

 kept in clean cultivation until July, then a 

 crop, usually one of legumes, is sowed and 

 mowed down in the autumn, allowed to start 

 next spring, then plowed down and clean 

 cultivated as in the preceding year. 



The Object of the Cover Crop. 



1. To increase the organic matter and 

 nitrogen in the soil. 



2. By the system of clean cultivation and 

 a dry earth mulch to conserve the moisture 

 for the growth of the trees. The legumes 

 alone have the power of appropriating nit- 

 rogen and storing it in the soil. 



The increase of humus is also an important 

 matter, for there is no part of the soil which 

 has more important functions than humus. 

 It is, first, a great absorbent of moisture, 

 almost any crop will use up between 200 and 

 300 tons of water per acre. It is very im- 

 portant to hold this water supply there. 

 More crops suffer from lack of water than 

 from lack of food plant. This is especially 

 true in both the lightest lands and heaviest 

 clays, and in these the supply of humus is 

 especially needed. 



Humus indirectly is also a source of plant 

 food ; it is nature's store house for nitrogen. 



Before the plants can use this nitrogen the 

 supply must go through the process of nitro- 

 fication, and humus holds it ready for this 

 process. 



3. Humus also contains a certain amount 

 of phosphoric acid and potash. Decaying 

 humus yields these substances in a partially 

 digested form 4 to 5 times as much as the 

 ordinary potash in the soil, by reason of its 

 available form. The amount of potash and 

 phosphoric acid in a soil which is assimilable 

 in muric acid is what measures the fertility 

 or crop-producing power of soil. 



In fact it is a general rule that the fertility 

 of the soil is largely governed by the supply 

 of humus. 



4. Humus also encourages bacterial life, 

 the presence of which is most essential to 

 the conversion of the plant food in the soil 

 into a form in which the plants can absorb it. 

 Corn crops increase the amount of humus in 

 the soil perhaps from 8 or 10 per cent, to 15 

 per cent. An experiment had been tried at 

 Ottawa this year, where the result of a corn 

 crop had been shown. 



There was a great difference in corn crops 

 as between buckwheat and rye on one hand 

 and clovers and legumes on the other. The 

 former were consumers of nitrogen, and the 

 latter absorbed it, storing it up in the roots 

 in the ground. 



The experiments show that all the way 

 from 60 lb. to 125 lbs. of nitrogen per acre 

 in one crop of mammoth clover can be got 

 in the ground — as much as could be got in 

 ID tons of barnyard manure. Then there 

 was the humus additional. There were also 

 about 45 to 50 lbs. phosphoric acid and 115 

 lbs. potash. 



The clover gets the nitrogen from the air 

 in the soil; the better the soil has been tilled 

 the better the clover will grow. This nitro- 

 gen absorption is due to bacteria. 



The phosphoric acid and potash are of 

 course merely worked over, and they are 

 left in a more available form than they were 

 previously. 



The McPike Grape, which was shown at 

 the Pan-American by The Silas Wilson Co., 

 was originated by H. S. McPike, of Alton, 



111. It is a seedling of Worden, of the same 

 season, but larger in berry. The skin is 

 tender and the pulp melting. 



