PLOWING UNDER THE CROP 



193 



When the crop is harvested, the cowpeas, clover, etc., serve as 

 catch crops, and are plowed under later in the fall. Cowpeas, 

 soybeans, common vetch, field peas, and velvet beans are the 

 legumes best adapted to single summer growth. Sweet clover is 

 a biennial (Fig. 130). 



Green manure is much needed in the 

 South. There each year the season is long 

 enough to permit the growing of one or 

 two crops for sale and at least one crop for 

 plowing under. For this reason soybeans, 

 cowpeas and velvet beans are used more 

 than any other crop. 



Fia. 129. Soy beans. 

 (U. S. D. A.) 



Fia. 130. Sweet clover. 

 (U. S. D. A.) 



Plowing Under the Crop. Generally, the best time to plow 

 under a legume crop is when it is still green. Rye, or any other 

 grain crop, should be turned under before it becomes too strawy. 



Sometimes when a heavy growth is plowed under at the begin- 

 ning of a prolonged dry period, injury results, because of the drying 

 out of the seed bed. In such cases, good contact should be created, 

 if possible, between the seed bed and the subsoil. In this, good 

 plowing is advantageous (Figs. 75 and 76). . 

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