COVER CROPS. 291 



stubble of last year is planted as thick as possible with 

 velvet beans. The vines receive one working with a plow, 

 no hoeing. They grow, covering everything with a dense 

 mass of vines and a layer of rotten leaves. An Acme cul- 

 tivator is run along the six feet of plowed ground as long 

 as the vines will permit. Nothing more is done, except to 

 keep the vines from the trees, and the trees are never 

 plowed. When the cold kills the vines, they are drawn 

 into piles with the horse-rake, and later they are placed 

 around the trees and on the strip between. No beans are 

 picked, except enough for seed. The trees are banked by 

 December 1st. No other fertilizer than the velvet beans 

 has been used now for six years or more. Date of writ- 

 ing, all trees look luxuriant, covered with new growth 

 and extra heavy bloom. Last fruit was perfect, pro- 

 nounced by Mr. Arnold, of Jacksonville, who bought it 

 all on the trees, as being the best he had ever handled. 

 I will not claim that I shall never have to use any other 

 fertilizer, but thus far there is no indication of the need 

 of it. Expenses per year are about $25.00, except cost 

 of banking and removing same." 



Some growers have objected to the velvet bean as 

 a cover crop because it harbors insects, particularly the 

 soldier bug, cotton stainer and allied insects. These, when 

 the crop is removed or dies down, transfer their attentions 

 to the fruit on the trees, to the consternation of the 

 grower, and much damage is sometimes done. But these 

 insects are more or less periodic and rarely, if ever, 

 attack a grove year after year in numbers large enough 

 to prove injurious. Whether the velvet bean is more 

 likely to attract them than any other crop is also some- 

 what problematical. 



