NURSERY MANAGEMENT 273 



this deduction from the analyses and shows that good 

 crops of potatoes, beans, wheat, etc., are secured after 

 land has been "treed." Why not nursery stock? The 

 reason is not a chemical but a physical one. The very 

 methods of thorough and deep tillage necessary to pro- 

 duce good trees injure the soil texture by "burning up" 

 the vegetable matter, a result most noticeable in heavy 

 soils, the very ones which produce best nursery stock. 

 As a rule no system of cover cropping and none of ma- 

 nuring between the rows is practiced, so there is neither 

 protection of the soil during winter nor renewal of vege- 

 table matter while the trees are growing one to three 

 or more years. Then, too, when the trees are dug their 

 roots go too, and since the work is usually done in the 

 fall, frequently when the ground should not be worked 

 at all, the soil must pay the penalty; namely, puddling 

 more or less serious the following spring and summer 

 and refusal to "work up" again for nursery trees until 

 after a rest in grain, hay or pasture. 



369. Cover crops for nursery lands. Since the 

 nursery lands are usually heavy, it would seem that sweet 

 clover should have special value in bringing them back 

 quickly into good heart, because this plant burrows 

 deeply and opens up the soil well besides adding con- 

 siderable humus, both by its decaying roots and its tops, 

 when these are turned under. Perhaps it would reduce 

 the resting period to two or three years, as against three 

 to five or even more under common practice. If cover 

 crops, such as crimson clover, buckwheat and rye, were 

 grown between the rows and plowed or disked under in 

 early spring, the evil effects on the land would also be 

 lessened. Coarse manure certainly has helped where 

 applied between the rows in autumn or spring, but among 

 nursery stock it is not always convenient to apply. It 

 should, therefore, be liberally added after a nursery crop 

 has been harvested. A second crop could thus be planted 

 within two years with good prospects of success. 



