CROPS FOR GREEN MANURING. 205 



BUCKWHEAT grows rapidly, and two crops may be grown 

 and plowed under in the course of four or five months. It 

 is too well known to need further notice. 



SPURRY is a plant not much known in America, but is 

 extensively used in Germany for this purpose. 1* hree crops 

 may be grown where the season permits; the first sowing 

 may be made in May, and the last is plowed in for the fol- 

 lowing wheat crop in September or October. This plant is 

 thus well adapted for this use in the Southern States. 



WHITE LUPIN is another crop largely grown in Europe 

 for green manure. It matures in less than 120 days and 

 furnishes 10 to 12 tons of herbage. It is particularly rich 

 in nitrogen and belongs, as clover does, to the leguminous 

 family of plants. 



RAPE AND MUSTARD are plants of the cabbage and tur- 

 nip tribe; the former may be sown in the fall for use in the 

 spring; the latter is sown in the spring. 



RYE is a crop of considerable value for this use, as it may 

 be sown in the fall and plowed in, in May; and then fol- 

 lowed by two crops of buckwheat before the time for sow- 

 ing fall wheat arrives. No other crop affords so much veg- 

 etable matter in the period of its growth, at so little cost 

 and at such an early season as this. For a manure for a 

 corn crop it is the most convenient, for these reasons. 



TURNIPS may be sown in August, and will produce 10 

 or 12 tons of green matter to be left to decay on the surface 

 and then be plowed under in the spring. This crop has 

 been used with advantage in the summer seeding of clover 

 and grass, in August, for the purpose of being left during 

 the winter for the protection afforded by the leaves, and in 

 the spring for the manure afforded by the decaying roots. 



RED CLOVER is the most popular green manure on ac- 

 count of its surpassing richness in nitrogen, yielding from a 

 full crop as much as 180 pounds of this element to the acre. 

 But its growth is slow, and it is only the second years crop 

 which can be used for this purpose. One cutting may be 

 made in June for hay, and the second growth turned under 

 in September for wheat. Its large, fleshy, solid, tap roots, 



