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The choice of this crop will be largely a personal matter and 

 is frequently a rather difBcult question to settle, but it ought 

 to be a cultivated crop without any question, and usually an 

 annual crop. Some of the most generally successful companion 

 crops for young orchards are late potatoes, beans, late cabbage, 

 corn (preferably sweet corn or small-growing flint corn) and 

 squash. 



Cover Crops for the Orchard. 



Whether the orchard is cropped or not the land along the 

 tree rows should be sowed down about the first week in July 

 to some type of cover crop. If the land is not cropped then 

 the entire orchard should be seeded down. This cover crop 

 is a very important part in the proper management of the 

 orchard. Some of the things which it does to the orchard are 

 to check the growth of the tree toward the latter end of the 

 season, thus insuring that it goes into the winter in a well- 

 ripening condition; to prevent the washing of the soil during 

 winter and spring rains, which of course is extremely important 

 where the land has any great slope; to add humus to the 

 soil, which has already been discussed and which is very im- 

 portant; and if a leguminous crop is used, to add nitrogen to 

 the soil. In sections where the soil is likely to freeze deeply 

 the cover crop also assists in preventing extreme depths of 

 freezing and still more important in preventing alternate 

 freezing and thawing of the soil. 



Various crops are used for this purpose. One of the best 

 plans is to use a mixture of two crops; and it will be found 

 that a half bushel of barley with either 6 or 8 pounds of 

 crimson clover added, or with a peck of winter vetch added, 

 makes an excellent combination. Another good plan is to 

 substitute buckwheat for barley, using a half bushel of buck- 

 wheat with 6 or 8 pounds of crimson clover or with the peck 

 of winter vetch. These mixtures insure that nearly all of the 

 functions mentioned above will be satisfactorily performed in 

 the orchard. 



