50 THE OLIVER PLOW BOOK 



mitting a much shorter time between the plowing of the 

 ground and the planting of the crop. 



The practice of growing a green cover crop of some 

 sort and plowing it under in the spring of the year 

 instead of in the fall is proving to be a very beneficial 

 and profitable process for sandy land, particularly if 

 those cover crops are nitrogen bearing plants, such as 

 clover, etc., simply because being plowed under in sandy 

 soil, they form a sort of reservoir for holding moisture as 

 well as yielding nitrates. The fact that sand does not 

 form clods or large air spaces makes a practice of this 

 kind profitable on sandy soils in the spring whereas it 

 would prove detrimental on clay soils on account of the 

 tendency of these soils to form clods and air spaces on 

 the bottom of the seed bed. 



