112 COVER CROPS 



A slightly different phase of the same prejudice is seen in 

 some orchardists' opinions of crops which do live over winter. 

 Many men will insist on delaying plowing in the spring until 

 a new growth can be produced, no matter how rank the growth 

 may have been in the autumn, because they say that unless they 

 do "there is so little to plow under." It sometimes does look 

 small in the spring, but it will make just as much humus as it 

 would have in the autumn. 



While under certain conditions there may be no objection to 

 allowing some growth in the spring; while, in fact, it may be a 

 distinct advantage by producing extra humus and sometimes by 

 drying out the soil ; yet there is always great danger that it will 

 be allowed to stand too long. On heavy soils this objection is 

 particularly strong, for a big growth of the crop will dry out the 

 soil very rapidly and, if the weather happens to turn dry at just 

 the right time, the soil may easily become too dry and plow up in 

 big lumps that are very difficult to break up. On the whole a 

 crop which makes a big growth in the autumn but does not live 

 over winter is to be preferred because it avoids this danger. 



Plants to Use. — A great many different plants are used as 

 cover crops in the orchard, depending on the locality, the type of 

 soil, the number of acres to be covered, the owner's pocketbook 

 and a number of other considerations. Table IV, however, in- 

 cludes the most common ones. It gives also the usual rate per acre, 

 the average price (though this varies greatly in different localities 

 and in different years) and the cost of seeding an acre. 



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 

 time 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 



