316 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



CATCH-CROPS. 



I.Y WM. P. BROOKS, PH.D., PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE, MASSACHUSETTS 

 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



By the term catch-crop is commonly understood a crop 

 which is used to fill a gap, whether caused by the failure of 

 one of the regular crops of the farm or one coming between 

 the main crops. It is a crop which occupies a field which, 

 in the more common farm practice, would remain bare or 

 unproductive. It is often an emergency crop, i. e., a crop 

 not at first planned for, but introduced to supply a want 

 which is a consequence of accident or unforeseen conditions. 

 A rigid regard for the teachings of farm economy would 

 make catch-crops, save " those sometimes introduced under 

 the spur of unforeseen contingencies, as regular members of 

 our rotations as airy of the crops of the farm. It is not truer 

 that "nature abhors a vacuum" than that the good farmer 

 abhors bare fields. As idle hands find mischief, so also Ln 

 one sense do idle fields. 



Idle Fields make their Owners Poor. 



The idle field is no more at a stand-still than the idle hand. 

 A growth of weeds on all except the most barren soon covers 

 its nakedness. The increased labor in the care of crops in 

 subsequent years, resulting from the germination of the 

 countless seeds developed in the idle field, will make heavy 

 inroads upon the owner's time or money. The catch-crop 

 may be made to keep down these weeds ; and right here is 

 found one of the chief advantages of catch-cropping. 



But the weeds upon the idle field may be kept down by 

 occasional ploughing and harrowing, or they may be cut 

 before they ripen seeds, may be argued. True, the weed- 

 seed pest may be prevented in either of these ways ; but even 

 so the idle field makes the owner poor. Should he choose 



