SOIL-IMPROVING CROPS 31 
anything like success. A crop of potatoes will do fairly 
effectually. Ashcroft, near the point where the Fraser 
River changes its direction from west to south-west, has 
gained a high reputation for potatoes. In the beginning 
of November, 1911, the province of British Columbia 
carried off at New York, at the Pan-American Exhibi- 
tion, against an array of sixty competitors drawn from all 
parts of the American Continent, the Stilwell Trophy and 
$1,000 for the best collection of potatoes, 102 varieties 
being staged in the exhibit. 
Other root crops which it pays to grow between the 
trees are turnips and mangolds, more especially if the 
rancher keeps a cow or pigs. There is a limited market 
for both crops, as also for carrots, for giving to dairy cows 
and feeding horses at the logging camps and mines, and 
in the towns. 
Onions are profitable, but they require stronger, stiffer 
soil than is generally found in British Columbia. Never- 
theless, one grower at Kelowna has been highly successful 
with this crop, and is reputed to have made quite a 
fortune from the business. 
CLover, ETc.—If the fruit-trees only are considered, 
a far better crop to grow is red clover, lucerne (known in 
Canada as alfalfa), cow-peas, hairy vetches, or some 
similar leguminous (i.e., pod-bearing) plant. All these 
serve to put nitrogen into the soil, and nitrogen is the 
one property which as a rule the British Columbia soils 
are deficient in. They also supply humus, or decayed 
vegetable matter, an ingredient of the utmost possible 
value, as it holds and stores up moisture against the dry, 
hot months of the summer. Properly speaking, these 
