COVER CROPS IN MARYLAND. 
Keeping the Soil Well Clothed. 
I wonder if the name “cover crop" was suggested 
by that other designation “bare earth.” It may 
well have been, for the earth seeks to cover its 
bareness with vegetation. It abhors nakedness just 
as nature abhors a vacuum. I remember meeting a 
man who seriously contended that the 
pampas of South American and the 
prairies of this country must once upon 
a time have been covered with great 
forests, which, witn respect to the 
earth, answered about the same pur¬ 
pose as the hairy covering of an ani¬ 
mal's body. To me tlxe word “bare,” 
which the dictionary says means “with¬ 
out clothes or covering,’ 
gests the word “barren,” 
“unproductive or sterile.” 
of most people they 
Maryland farmers have 
looked this fact. There is much less 
excuse for their doing so than for the 
farmer in the North, whose fields are 
usually covered with a kindly mantle 
of snow during the entire Winter. 
Here, where we seldom have any 
sleighing whatever, the bare nakedness 
,of the open fields in a Winter land¬ 
scape, with their suggestion of utter 
barrenness, is most depressing. 
ite Maryland cover is Crimson clover. If sown 
alone it may be seeded from July 10 to Septembei’ 
20. Experience proves that Crimson clover seed 
grown in this country produces much stronger and 
hardier plants than seed imported from abroad. 
This is no doubt the result of acclimatization—an 
important factor in all seed selection. Crimson 
clover thrives best in cool weather, upon soil not too 
daily if it is to be done in connection with the last 
working of corn or tomatoes. Twenty pounds of 
seed to the acre should be used. It is best worked 
in with a light harrow, or, if sown in corn, with a 
14-tooth cultivator. 
Next to Crimson clover, cow peas is the favorite 
Maryland crop for the increase and conservation of 
soil fertility. While they do not provide a Winter 
covering in the same sense that 
clover does, they may be considered a 
cover crop, because they can be seeded 
in Southern Maryland as late as July 
15. and yet make a good Fall growth. 
They keep down the weeds and, if per¬ 
mitted to stand during the Winter, 
they serve the same purpose as a good 
stand of stubble, besides adding nitro¬ 
gen to the soil. If the field is double 
disked the peavines will be well cov¬ 
ered, but left near the surface, and a 
much better seed bed may then be pre¬ 
pared for a crop of Winter wheat than 
if the land is plowed and harrowed. 
Cow peas like plenty of heat. If to be 
used as a cover crop in corn, they 
should be moistened before seeding, 
especially if the soil is very dry. They 
are best put in with a one-horse drill, 
set to cover them from one to two 
inches. If left uncovered, or if cov¬ 
ered too deeply, a poor stand is bound 
to result. 
always sug- 
which means 
In the minds 
go together, 
long over- 
TIIE LEADING AMERICAN-BRED WHITE LEGHORN. Fig. ill 
In those southern counties where 
they still have what they call the 
“four-field system,” this barrenness is 
the regular order of things for three- 
fourths of the farm. For fear that 
this may not be understood, it should 
perhaps be explained, that where the 
“four-field system” obtains, one field is 
cultivated by the tenant, while the 
rest of the farm is “rested,” by being 
used as a common pasture for the 
stock of tenant and owner. No at¬ 
tempt is ever made to seed grass of 
any kind. The crop of corn or to¬ 
bacco is removed, and the field left to 
grow up in weeds and wild grasses. 
In Spring another field is prepared for 
corn, and the first field used as a pas¬ 
ture. The tenant thus manages to get 
around once in about four years; 
hence the name. It is admittedly a 
most wasteful system of farming, but 
where land is cheap and labor scarce, 
it may perhaps find some excuse. Its 
usual result is the most frightful soil 
erosion,—the inevitable consequence of 
heavy rains falling upon uncovered 
corn ground which has been left in 
ridges, produced by deep cultivation. 
I'he resultant loss of fertility is attest¬ 
ed, not only by the soil itself, but by the 
idling up of once navigable streams 
like the upper l’atapsco and Patuxent 
'villi mud from the adjacent fields. 
< over crops are therefore of supreme 
importance to the Maryland farmer. This applies 
not only to that small portion of the State, which 
Mill permits the use of the “four-field system,” but 
the State at large. If the fertility of our soils is 
1,1 he conserved, we dare not leave them without a 
" biter covering. To do so, especially with the 
sandy loams of corn and tomato fields, is to encour¬ 
age and invite that barrenness which bareness not 
'ml.v suggests, but unerringly indicates. The favor¬ 
Recortl of 229 Eggs in 42 Weeks. 
THE CHAMPION LEGHORN— 248 EGGS IN 45 WEEKS. Fig. 412. 
deficient in humus, which, if at. all acid, has been 
well limed, and which contains a good store of 
moisture. Hot. dry weather, coming just after the 
seed has sprouted and before the tender roots have 
gone deep enough to reach the moist earth below 
the top soil mulch, is very apt to kill it. Sowing 
Crimson clover when the weather is very hot and 
dry is therefore not a wise thing to do; although it 
is not always possible to postpone the sowing, espe- 
Kye also makes a good cover crop. 
If seeded alone it should be put in be¬ 
tween September 25 and November 30. 
If seeded with Crimson clover, the 
work should be done between Septem¬ 
ber l and September 25. I saw a Ger¬ 
man farmer sow rye with a one-horse 
drill between the corn rows late in the 
Fall of 1912. This gave him a good 
cover crop which was turned under in 
the Spring plowing of 1913. I saw an¬ 
other who simply removed his corn 
from the field, disked his ground once 
and put in his rye with a drill. He 
permitted his cover crop of rye to 
stand and harvested a very fair yield. 
inter oats are not nearly so much 
used in Maryland as they should be. 
Like rye. they make a very good cover 
crop. If put in too early, they joint 
before Winter; if sown too late, they 
winter-kill. They should be sown be¬ 
tween September 1 and September 10. 
The seeding of Winter oats together 
with white-blooming Crimson clover 
in September, after a crop of late to¬ 
matoes or tobacco, is being strongly 
recommended by the Field Demonstra¬ 
tion Service in our Southern counties. 
This crop can be cut for hay when the 
oats are in the milk and the clover in 
bloom,—a most important feature in a 
country which buys most of its hay 
from the North. After the hay crop 
has been harvested, a crop of tomatoes, 
sweet corn or late potatoes may be grown upon the 
same piece of ground and another crop put in. Any 
number of such combinations may be worked out 
by the progressive Maryland farmer. Upon the four 
acre truck demonstration of the little German chapel 
at Glenburnie, Anne Arundel County, we have seed¬ 
ed a combination cover crop of Cow-horn turnips 
and Crimson clover, using one pound of turnip seed 
and 15 pounds of clover seed to the acre, in a crop 
