46 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



turnips, cow peas and buckwheat, will grow on poorer soils and 

 are useful as forerunners of the crops mentioned. 



The most useful cover crop is the one that lives through the 

 winter, and the least desirable is the one that dies with the 

 first fall frost. Therefore the clovers, vetches, rye, winter oats 

 and rape are more desirable than cow peas, soybeans, or turnips. 



A Member: What does that vetch seed cost? 



Prof. Powell : Vetch seed at the present time is high. 

 It costs five or six dollars a bushel. It seeds along in June. 



A Member: How much of that seed is required per acre? 



Prof. Powell : About three acres to a peck. 



The President : I think I fully agree with what Mr. Powell 

 has said as to the general desirability of adding humus to the 

 soil and of conserving moisture in it. I think, however, there 

 is need to use good judgment, as either of them in excess tends 

 to make green-looking, soft and easily-rotting fruit. 



The last season, particularly in the latter part, we had too 

 much moisture and would have been glad to have got rid of 

 some of it. 



Prof. Po\\ell : That is where sod culture would have 

 come in. It might have paid you to have had something which 

 would have pumped the soil out to some extent. 



The President : We w-ould have been glad of most any way 

 to get rid of it. 



[Here a large number of pictures were thrown on the screen, 

 and the lecture by Professor Powell, which it is impossible to 

 reproduce, and of which the following discussion formed a part, 

 was continued.] 



A Member : Don't those long-rooted plants help to pump it out ? 



Prof. Powell: Those long roots on such plants as you see 

 here help to get the soil into condition so that it can hold more 

 moisture. I believe one of the mistakes that our orchardist 

 sometimes make, is in allowing cover crops to grow too long 

 in the spring. Of course, that is something which has to be 

 guarded against. If a crop is allowed to stand too long, it 

 pumps out an immense amount of moisture. We have seen 

 instances where, by allowing crimson clover to grow too high 

 before it was turned under, it might have pumped out so nutch 

 water in that time that on account of the loss of moisture there 

 was a damage to the crop. 



