COVER CROPS 

 R. D. ANTHONY 



Associate Horticulturist, New York Agricultural Ivxpcriinent Station, 



Geneva, X. Y. 



Cover crops in the fruit plantation are 

 those which are sown after the spring cul- 

 tivation with the intention of plowing them 

 under in the fall or spring. In most 

 orchards the use of cover crops should be 

 regarded as a necessary complement to the 

 cultivation a fact far too often over- 

 looked. 



PRINCIPLES OF USE 



The prime use of cover crops is to in- 

 crease the amount of food for the fruit 

 crops. The clay loam soils of our fruit 



regions contain large amounts of the necessary plant food elements, 

 but usually these are in an insoluble form and hence unavailable to 

 plants, which must feed on the nutrients dissolved in the soil 

 water that is constantly being absorbed by the roots and passed on 

 to the leaves the stomach of the plant. Our problem is so to 

 treat these elements that they become soluble and therefore avail- 

 able as plant food. If we drop a small piece of limestone into 

 a weak acid it soon disappears, partly by the formation of gas 

 and partly by dissolving in the acid. The soil water is normally 

 slightly acid and can dissolve limestone in the same way, thus 

 making the water " hard." The insoluble plant food elements 

 can be broken down similarly by an acid soil water and thus 

 become available. 



The acidity of the soil water is largely due to the acids which 

 are formed when organic matter decays. Therefore, the first 

 essential in soil fertility is to insure the presence in the soil of 

 a liberal supply of humus the name used for decaying organic 

 matter. For the fruit grower there is no better way of securing 

 humus than by the plowing under of vigorous cover crops. 



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