32 



there is a crop of fruit on the trees, of course it also has to be brought 

 forward to maturity. As a rule, however, the demands for moisture 

 on the part of the tree are not so great as during May and June. Long 

 experience and thorough scientific experiments agree that cultivation 

 may be profitably remitted after about July 1. Experience has shown, 

 however, rather emphatically, that it is unwise to allow the land to 

 stand bare for the remainder of the year. However, the requirements 

 are all reasonably well met by sowing a co^'er crop at the time of the 

 last cultivation. 



A cover crop in an orchard performs several useful functions. It 

 holds the soil from washing during winter and spring months, it takes 

 up fertilizer and prevents leaching, it renders a certain amount of 

 plant food available storing it for future use, it may collect a consid- 

 erable amount of nitrogen from the atmosphere; but perhaps its 

 most important office is in keeping the soil suppUed with humus. 

 This last benefit is accomplished when the plants are plowed under 

 in the spring. 



Various crops have been recommended for covers in peach orchards, 

 but some experience is required to select the one best adapted to a 

 given soil and chmate. As a rule, preference should be given to legumi- 

 nous croi^s which collect nitrogen from the atmosphere. The various 

 clovers, especially those of larger growth, make fairly good cover 

 crops. The vetches are excellent. The winter vetch is especially 

 good, its chief drawback being the high price of the seed. Cow-peas 

 are a favorite crop in southern latitudes, but are not generally satis- 

 factory in Massachusetts. Early maturing varieties of soy beans have 

 been found amongst the best of all cover crops in our experiments. 

 A very excellent cover can be secured by sowing a mixture of Canada 

 peas and barley. Buckwheat makes a first-class cover crop, and has 

 the advantage of germinating well. Winter rye is sometimes used, 

 and oats are better than nothing. 



In planting any of these cover crops the seed should be sown in 

 large quantities, in order to make a thick mat. We have found it 

 best, in sowing such crops as soy beans, to drill them in, making the 

 rows about 2 feet apart. When this is done we plant the cover crop 

 two weeks earlier than we would otherwise, say about June 10 to 15. 

 The cultivator is then run once or twice, sometimes even three times, 

 between the rows of soy beans after they come up. In this way the 

 cover-crop period and the cultivation period overlap one another to 

 some extent, and this is found to be an advantage. 



Fertilizers. 



If a system of cover cropping is consistently followed, and if a good 



growth of soy beans, clover or other leguminous crop is secured from 



year to year, there will be no need of large applications of nitrogen; 



at any rate, only small quantities of nitrogen will be required on 



