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for the Bureau of Soils or the soil man in your station, be- 

 cause he would be familiar \yitii the local problems. But 

 we have lots of sandy land growing apples in different 

 places. I don't know that I could answer that to any ad- 

 vantage to you. 



MR. KITTREDGE OF MOUNT VERXOX. I would 

 like to ask Mr. Eraser what he thinks is the best cover crop 

 for a young orchard? 



MR. ERASER. Under our conditions we have tried a 

 number of things and have tried to rotate. In years when 

 clover was dear, like last year, we have used four pounds of 

 Dwarf Essex Rape, costing us 24 cents an acre and we got 

 a fine groAvth, a big mat of stuff, Avhich turned in plenty of 

 humus. I have tried Hairy Vetch, and in the case of a 

 young pear lot I pretty nearly brought disaster on the whole 

 business, because the Hairy Vetch got to taking the water 

 away from the young trees, and since half that block was in 

 vetch and half in buckwheat, we had a very good test. 

 The buds on the portion in Hairy Vetch started badly in 

 the spring and then went back and were a whole month 

 late, seemingly due to the fact that the Vetch took the 

 water supply from the pear and injured the proper maturing 

 of the buds, the dry fall causing that condition. Therefore 

 I regard Hairy Vetch as quite uncertain. I got the same 

 results in New Jersey, so that I have cut it out entirely. 

 Now, we are trjdng probably buckwheat and clover, rape 

 and clover, or we will put in half a pound of cowhorn tur- 

 nips and two pounls of rape and two of crimson, and two of 

 red clover, or, if the red is very dear, a couple of pounds of 

 alsike clover. You can use all kind of things, and all the 

 pigweed and redroot, and any other things that you can get 

 to grow. I think the best compliment ever paid me was at 

 e. Grange meeting where they got me in and a man said, 

 ^' What have you got in that field along the Mount Morris 

 road?" And I said, ''That is a currant lot.'' He said, 

 "Currants! Why, I think it is the most disgraceful con- 

 dition there is in Geneseo. You can't see anything but pig- 



