184 The Principles of Fruit-growing. 



COVER CROPS. 



A cover crop* is one which is used for the par- 

 ticular purpose of securing its mulching and phys- 

 ical effect upon the land in the intervals between 

 the regular crops or the normal seasons of tillage. 

 A sowed crop in the orchard may be valuable in 

 two ways: by affording a cover to the land, and by 

 improving the soil when it is plowed in. As a 

 cover, it may keep down weeds, and protect the land 

 from injurious effects of frost. As a green manure, 

 it may add fiber to the soil, and thus augment its 

 power of holding fertility and moisture, and it may 

 add directly to the fertility of the land. This late 

 crop catches and holds the leaching nitrates which 

 the tree -roots utilize earljer in the season. Taken 

 as a whole, the cover crop may be said to improve 

 the soil in eight ways: 



I. It directly improves the physical condition of 

 the land : 



Prevents hard soils from cementing or pud- 

 dling ; 

 Holds the rains and snows until they have 



time to soak away into the land ; 

 Dries out the soil in spring, making early. 



tillage possible ; 

 Sometimes serves as a protection from frost. 



Term first used in this connection in Bull. 61, Cornell Exp. Sta. 333 

 (Dec. 1893). 



