40 



food to the trees; and that in the case of soy beans, cow peas and the 

 vetches they help to keep up the store of nitrogen in the soil by what 

 they take up from the air and store in their roots. This is by no means 

 all that these cover-crops do, but it covers the main points, and serves 

 to show how important they are. The general plan of their use 

 would be this: that the orchard would be ploughed as early in the 

 spring as the soil would permit and thoroughly fitted as outlined 

 earlier. Then thorough cultivation would continue up to the middle 

 of July, when the cover-crop would be sown. The only important 

 deviation from this course would be in the case of some of the legimii- 

 nous cover-crops mentioned, particularly soy beans and cow peas, 

 which often give better results if sown in drills earlier in the season, 

 the last of June or the first of July, and cultivated several times before 

 the orchard is laid by. Of course, the objection to this is that the 

 cultivation by this method is much more costly, since it must be done 

 with a one-horse cultivator, a row at a time, instead of with a disc or 

 spring-tooth harrow, covering three or four times the space. But 

 even this objection is often, if not usually, overbalanced by the much 

 better growth of the cover-crop. 



After cultivation ceases and the cover-crop is sown nothing further 

 is done to the Soil until the following spring, when the cover-crop is 

 ploughed under, and the programme begins again. Where a good 

 growth of one of the nitrogenous cover-crops can be secured it is often 

 possible to obtain all the nitrogen needed for the orchard in this wa^^ 



I should feel inclined to begin with buckwheat as a cover-crop in 

 starting an old orchard because it is peculiarly effective in rotting 

 down sod and putting the soil in fine physical condition. This might 

 be followed in a year or two with either soy, beans, summer vetch or 

 cow peas. 



As to amounts of seed per acre of the different crops suggested the 

 following will be found right for ordinary conditions : — 



Buckwheat, 

 Rye, . 

 Soy beans, . 

 Cow peas, . 

 Summer vetch, 

 Winter vetch, 



1 bushel. 

 1^ bushels. 



2 bushels broadcast; 

 2 bushels broadcast; 

 1+ bushels broadcast: 



1^ bushels in drills. 



1^ bushels in drills. 



1 bushel in drills. 



1 bushel broadcast; f bushel in drills. 



And lastly there is the question of top-grafting the trees. I have 

 already said that I should consider the necessity of this a strong factor 

 against the orchard, for it requires considerable time, two to foiu" 

 years, and not a little expense, to work over the trees into other 

 varieties. But it frequently happens that odd trees in an orchard 

 are of unsatisfactory varieties, and it is sometimes worth while to 

 graft over an entire orchard where the trees are relatively young and 

 otherwise in good condition. Where this is to be done I beheve it is 



