142 An American Fruit-Farm 



kept your team and men at work till late July, ever 

 cultivating the soil. Then, when the ground is 

 like an ash-heap and cultivation is over, you sow 

 (or drill) your cover-crop, to be plowed in for 

 nitrogen next year. If you are fortunate and get 

 in your clover seed just before a rain, it will germi- 

 nate in three days, under an August sky. By the 

 time snow flies, your clover will quite cover the 

 ground and stand nine inches high. Whatever 

 nitrogenous cover-crop is used, its value depends 

 upon the growth it has made when plow-time comes 

 in the spring. This means as early as possible 

 sowing the previous season and this cannot be 

 earlier than the last cultivation of the vineyard. 

 It is not the clover top but the clover root that 

 stores up the desired nitrogen in the soil for avail- 

 able use. Really the cover-crop is under ground, 

 though we commonly measure its value by leaf, 

 stem, and blossom. In order to get an early sowing 

 of this cover-crop, the fruit-grower must have 

 begun his spring plowing as soon as the weather 

 permitted. Early begin, early win. It is the late 

 summer and the fall growth of the clover that gives 

 it worth ; or, if let grow and blossom in spring, all 

 haste must be made in order to get in the culti- 

 vation necessary during May, June, and July. 

 August cultivation is largely merely marking 

 time. While we do not raise fruit in order to 

 raise a cover-crop of clover, vetch, or turnips, 

 these must be raised and must sufficiently mature 

 to be of use, or we must apply barnyard manure. 



