COW PEAS 



113 



TABLE IV. Amount and Cost of Cover Crop Seed. 



tree 



'-iiIK 



' +1^ 



The last column is very suggestive and is well worth careful 

 study by the orchardist. Where one has but an acre or two of 

 orchard', the cost for seed is not an important matter, but when 

 it runs up to even ten acres the relative cost at $6.00 per acre 

 or 16 cents per acre is certainly worth consideration. 



With some crops it is possible to allow a strip along each 

 tree row to mature seed and then, by cross-cultivation when the 



e arrives for sowing the cover crop, to scatter this seed over 

 the entire surface of the orchard. There seems to be no serious 

 objection to this practice and it will reduce materially the 

 running expenses of the orchard. 



Let us now run over the catalogue of crops given and suggest 

 very briefly some of their good and bad characteristics, taking 

 them in the order mentioned in the table. 



Buckwheat. This is desirable because it will grow on almost 

 any soil, leaves the land in better physical condition than perhaps 

 any other crop, furnishes a large amount of humus, is reasonably 

 cheap, and starts so quickly after sowing that it will smother 

 out many annual weeds. This last point is particularly im- 

 portant where one has witch grass to contend with. On the other 

 hand buckwheat furnishes no nitrogen, makes rather a poor 

 cover, and is killed by the first frost. All things considered the 

 8 



