252 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



tivation they plowed a strip and left a 

 strip. The strip left standing thus be- 

 came a seeder for the strip turned under, 

 and so caused fairly good cultivation. 



Captain Shawhan of Payette, Idaho, 

 the products of whose orchards attracted 

 most favorable attention and some blue 

 ribbons at the Council Bluffs Apple Show, 

 and also at the Spokane Apple Show — 

 believes in cover crops, and the adding 

 of humus to the soil, thus feeding his 

 trees. He says when he takes such won- 

 drous crops of fruit from his trees that 

 he feels in duty hound to give them 

 something in return. Therefore, in addi- 

 tion to cover crops he makes generous 

 application of barnyard manure, and the 

 soil is so porous and loose that in walk- 

 ing through the orchard one sinks to his 

 shoe tops. 



Conuiiercial Ferlilizers 



In planting a later addition to the 

 Rolla orchard, consisting of 15,000 trees, 

 mostly one-year, but with some two-year, 

 we applied to each tree several pounds 

 of Commercial 583 and bone meal. Every 

 tree lived, not one failed to grow and all 

 made a most vigorous growth. Planters 

 of Western orchards on land deficient in 

 himius have supplied the deficiency by 

 this method rather than lose a year's 

 time in the cultivation of some crop. We 

 suggest that each tree be given, at the 

 time of planting, several pounds of sheep 

 or other manure, or some commercial 

 brand of fertilizer, as may be convenient. 

 Abundant humus may then be supplied 

 by the cover crop to follow. This method 

 is also suggested for old lands lacking 

 in fertility. The mone.v and time spent 

 in applying a stimulant will prove a 

 profitable investment. 



William P. Stark, 



Louisiana, ilo. 



CoTpr Crops for Eastern Conditions 



There are two distinct classes of cover 

 crops. There are those that live over 

 winter and commence .growing in the early 

 spring, like the clovers, vetches, and rye, 

 and those that die down in the fall, like 

 cow peas, soy beans, turnips, rape and 

 buckwheat. Many of those of the latter 

 class make a very large growth and in 



many respects are superior to those of 

 the former class. The winter cover crops, 

 however, furnish better protection to the 

 soil and roots during cold weather, and 

 on the whole are better suited to New 

 England conditions. 



Cover crops may also be classified ac- 

 cording to their ability to contribute to 

 the supply of plant food in the soil. Plants 

 belonging to the legume family, such as 

 clover, alfalfa, vetch, peas and beans, have 

 the power of assimilating nitrogen from 

 the air and when turned under contrib- 

 ute to the supply of this valuable form 

 of plant food. It will be observed that 

 some of these nitrogen-gathering crops 

 belong to the winter group and some to 

 the fall group. Under certain conditions 

 a non-leguminous crop may be more serv- 

 iceable than a nitrogen-gathering one and 

 in like manner a fall cover crop may 

 often be just as useful as a winter one. 

 If the trees were not making sufficient 

 growth a leguminous crop would probably 

 be desired, while if the trees were making 

 sufficient growth and there appeared to 

 be a lack of vegetable matter in the soil, 

 a rapid growing non-leguminous crop, 

 such as winter rye, would be more suit- 

 able. In locations where good covering 

 of snow may be depended upon and where 

 soils are not likely to wash, a fall cover 

 crop such as turnips, rape, buckwheat, 

 cow peas, soy beans, or horse beans would 

 be very suitable. The three last named 

 crops are nitrogen-gatherers and would 

 be more suitable than the former three, 

 if the trees were not making satisfactory 

 growth. 



Oats, barley and corn are occasionally 

 used as cover crops, but have very little 

 to commend them. They draw heavily 

 upon the moisture of the soil when the 

 fruit is maturing and are likely to affect 

 the yield seriously. 



Turnips and rape are very similar and 

 are sometimes used for cover crops. They 

 are more useful when sown in combina- 

 tion with clover than when grown by 

 themselves. They continue growing late in 

 the fall and furnish good protection to the 

 clover plants. Their chief value lies in 

 their ability to attack and break up in- 

 soluble compounds that other plants can- 



