129 



The other leguminous annuals have not fared so well. 

 This is especially true of the cowpeas and soy beans which 

 are practically at the bottom of the list. The unusually 

 low rank of the medium red and mammoth clovers is prob- 

 ably due more to some unfavorable condition of the soil in 

 their plats than to any direct action of the clovers them- 

 selves, because it has been difficult to get even them to grow 

 satisfactorily. From the general characters of these plants 

 we would expect them to rank about with crimson clover, 

 which itself has unexpectedly dropped from third to sixth 

 position during the past year. In the case of the cowpeas 

 and beans the difficulty appears to be largely due to the 

 fact that they have to be seeded too early, — about the 25th 

 to the 30th of June, which materially shortens the tillage 

 season, and the crops themselves soon begin growing vigor- 

 ously and thus apparently do more harm through competi- 

 tion for moisture than good through the addition or release 

 of plant food. 



The high rank of the millet, buckwheat, rape, and cow- 

 horn turnips is worthy of note, and it is also. rather hard to 

 explain, though in the case of buckwheat it may be partly 

 due to location. Our results with this class of crops, how- 

 ever, are not materially different from those of Emerson at 

 the Nebraska Station, published in 1903 and 1906 in their 

 Bulletins 79 and 92, and the same is true of our results 

 with intercrops. Our results with mulches are also practi- 

 cally duplicated by the experiment at the Ohio Station, 

 which is reported in their Bulletin 171. 



This particular group of crops is composed of frost- 

 killed annuals which make no demand for moisture in the 

 spring and this is apparently much to their credit. The 

 millet is much the best of the lot as a winter cover, and the 

 rape and turnips are the poorest. For the average orchard, 

 however, the writer is still inclined to prefer vetch and at 

 least some of the clovers. But from the present indications 

 and especially in view of the low cost of their seed, these 

 plants are undoubtedly worthy of attention and they are 

 very likely to come more nearly paying for themselves in 

 many cases than many of the plants now frequently sown 

 for orchard covers. 



