960 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July 31, 1915. 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
The Cover Crop Problem. 
Part II. 
Buckwheat and Rye. —My friend 
wants to know if rye is better than 
buckwheat. There is no fair comparison. 
Buckwheat is a warm weather crop suit¬ 
able for sowing after the middle of June. 
It makes a rank quick growth but frost 
makes an end of it. Rye, on the other 
hand, is a cold weather plant, living 
through the Winter and making a quick 
growth in Spring. It would not he pos¬ 
sible therefore to say which is “best” for 
green manuring. Where the soil is strong 
and moisture is abundant rye and buck¬ 
wheat may be seeded together in early 
July. The buckwheat will come up first 
and make a thick mat on the ground. You 
would think the rye had been killed out 
but at the first frost down goes the buck¬ 
wheat dead and flat and in a short time 
you see the rye growing up through it. 
The mat of dead buckwheat vines will 
protect the rye and help carry it through 
the Winter. In Spring the rye makes its 
growth and may be turned under with 
what is left of the buckwheat. Rye and 
barley is another good grain combina¬ 
tion. By sowing three pecks each of rye 
and barley to the acre you get a heavier 
Fall growth than with rye alone. The 
barley dies during the Winter and like 
the buckwheat protects the rye. We have 
found this combination of half and half 
rye and barley better than either grain 
alone. You cannot expect, however, to 
get much of a crop with these combina¬ 
tions unless the soil is in good condition 
and naturally strong. On poor soil use 
rye alone. 
Turnips and Rape. —I put these next 
in value to the grains for our section be¬ 
cause they are sure, while the legume 
plants are not entirely so. Both turnips 
and rape, I feel sure, have the ability to 
take potash and phosphate out of our soil 
when most other plants could not do so. 
They seem to rank next to ragweed in 
that respect. We prefer the Cow-horn 
turnip. This makes a deep root like a 
carrot or parsnip. While much of the 
turnip grows above ground like a man¬ 
gel, that deep root goes down into the soil 
and where the ground is mellow this root 
surely stirs it up. Rape, on the other 
hand, may be called a turnip, run all to 
top. It makes but a small root, but the 
top is large and rank-growing. I like to 
mix the seed of rape and Cow-horn tur¬ 
nips half and half, one pound each to 
the acre. This gives a great combination 
with the deep rooting turnip and the 
rank growing rape. Both are usually 
killed out in Winter, though some heads 
of rape live over and make seed. There 
are two cautions about the use of turnips 
as a cover crop. During a mild Winter 
the turnips will decay and make a bad 
smell if near a dwelling house. Rape 
seed is sometimes mixed with wild mus¬ 
tard and I know of cases where the farm 
has been badly plastered with this foul 
weed through sowing rape as a cover 
crop. There is no doubt, however, about 
the value of rape and turnips as manure. 
The chemist may not find much fertility 
in them, but the crop which follows 
where they are turned under proves what 
they have done to the soil. 
Hairy Vetch. —Many of our Northern 
fruit growers have had the most astonish¬ 
ing success with this crop. J. H. Hale, in 
Connecticut, calls it the best orchard 
cover crop he can find. W ith vis the vetch 
has been only moderately successful. In 
one field the vetch made a rank growth 
three years ago, and since it was plowed 
under we have been able to see the effects 
in all crops. We have never had a suc¬ 
cessful stand the first year of seeding 
without inoculation. After a few years 
the vetch seems to adapt itself to the soil 
and does well, but I have never been able 
to get quite so excited over vetch as many 
do. I think it is at its best on a lighter 
soil than ours, and the seed must be inoc¬ 
ulated in order to get results the first 
year. The seed is very high now. I shall 
not use vetch this year. In case it is 
used my advice is to scatter 20 pounds of 
vetch seed and three pecks of rye to the 
acre and get it in by August 15. 
The Clovers. —The best clover for 
cover cropping is Crimson. This is a 
cool weather crop and makes a thick, 
heavy growth through the Fall—heavier 
than any other clover. North of Phila¬ 
delphia this clover will be killed out in 
March from five to seven years in 10. Its 
root system gives it no ehance to clinch 
in the ground. Each frosty night pulls it 
a little, and the day’s thaw settles the 
soil, so that after a time there is a bare 
part of the root exposed to the high winds 
of March. That settles Crimson. It is a 
most wonderful plant for the Southern 
States, but I would not recommend it for 
the North, though it has served us well. 
We have seeded it with buckwheat, rye 
and barley and rape, and had it live over 
to be plowed under about Decoration 
Day. The average reader would be dis¬ 
appointed in its performance, and my ad¬ 
vice is not to sow Crimson north of Tren¬ 
ton, N. J., unless you are a fine “sport” 
and realize the limitation of this clover. 
I come to think more and more of Alsike 
for cover croppng. This is a hardy clover, 
doing fairly well on rather sour or wet 
land, and making a fair growth—not as 
large as Crimson, but enough to more 
than pay the cost. I shall sow’ Alsike all 
over this year, as the time has come to 
give my orchards a rest in sod, and I look 
to Alsike and Sweet clover to provide the 
rest. Mammoth clover is well thought of 
by orchard men north of us. I have not 
tried it, but when seeded with buckwheat 
or barley after the season’s cultivation is 
over it makes a good growth. Sweet 
clover is now attracting much attention, 
but I am not sure of its value as a cover 
crop. I shall try it this Fall, but from 
the nature of the plant I doubt if it. will 
serve our purpose unless we plan to let 
the land “rest” for a year or so. Red 
clover has not paid with us as a cover 
crop—nor has Alfalfa. Both need more 
time to develop than we can give between 
two regular farm crops. 
Dead Crops. —Some farmers particu¬ 
larly fruit growers on light land, want 
cover crops that will surely die in Win¬ 
ter. These men do not like to plow their 
orchards too much, and they want to 
work the soil very early, as it is light 
and warm. If they used a crop like rye 
and vetch or clover they would be obliged 
to plow, and could not get full benefit of 
the cover crop through an early work¬ 
ing. When the crop dies in Winter they 
can use a disk or Cutaway harrow and 
quickly chop up the soil as needed. Thus 
they want a crop that will grow’ rapidly 
through the Fall and leave only dead 
vines and leaves in Spring. Good crops 
for this work are oats, barley, buckwheat 
and rape. If a Northern farmer could 
get the Southern Winter or turf oats 
they would prove excellent for this pur¬ 
pose. They are seeded in the Fall like 
wheat or rye, make a heavy growth, in 
the Southern climate live over and give 
a crop the next year. We have tried 
them several times. They make a re¬ 
markable Fall growth, but do not live 
through the Winter. I should think these 
Winter oats and rape mixed would give 
good results as a “dead” cover crop. Bar¬ 
ley and buckwheat would also do well for 
this purpose. As for me, I do not care 
much for “dead ones.” I want some¬ 
thing that will show life in Spring, for I 
think the decay of the living plant stimu¬ 
lated by lime in the soil is a great factor 
in green manuring. 
Weeds. —There are some good fruit 
growers who believe that weeds make the 
best cover crop of all. These men fertil¬ 
ize and cultivate freely until they think 
the tree has made enough growth. Then 
they stop, and let the weeds come on to 
occupy the land. The famous Repp or¬ 
chard, at Glassboro, N. J., is an example 
of weed cropping. After about the first 
of July cultivation stops, and in a short 
time the orchards are a mass of rag¬ 
weed, redroot, smartweed, “pusley” and 
all the rest. By September these weeds 
are shoulder high, and they surely add 
more organic matter than most cover 
crops could. Most people have been 
taught so persistently to fight a weed 
that they cannot forgive the man who lets 
his orchard run riot. Yet there is sound 
theory in this practice. I think a reg¬ 
ular cover crop pays better because it 
keeps on growing until Spring. Most of 
these weeds are killed by the first hard 
frost, yet the formation of nitrates in the 
soil goes on unchecked, and if there are 
• only dead weeds growing there of course, 
there will be some loss. I think it would 
pay these weed farmers to scatter a little 
clover seed ahead of the last cultivation. 
This would not interfere with thd weeds, 
but would keep a living crop in the soil. 
You may say for weeds, however, that 
some of them are very useful as plant 
food scavengers. They follow the culti¬ 
vated plants and pick up plant food 
which might otherwise be lost or made 
unavailable. Ragweed for example. See 
how it grows and thrives where brush 
has been burned or where a potato fer¬ 
tilizer rich in potash has been used. This 
weed is a remarkable potash plant. See 
how smartweed comes in after an appli¬ 
cation of phosphoric acid. I have no 
doubt these weeds can be made as useful 
in orchard work as many of our regular 
cover crops, but the trouble is that such 
an orchard becomes a pest hole to seed 
the entire neighborhood. 
Beans and Peas. —These are all le¬ 
guminous plants and can take nitrogen 
from the air. Soy beans make a good or¬ 
chard crop. You can plant them in drills 
as you would corn, give good culture and 
at the last cultivation seed in a cover 
crop as you would in the corn crop. You 
can cut the Soys for seed or fodder, or 
let them decay on the ground. I have 
tried this plan in our orchards, and I 
know it works. The trouble is that most 
people cannot bear to let these big bean 
vines decay in the ground, though the or¬ 
chards would be better for it. Soy beans, 
like buckwheat, have what seems like 
ridiculously small roots for such big 
plants, but they are able to work the 
soil. In the South the cow pea is a won¬ 
derful cover crop, but for the North I 
think our ordinary field beans would pay 
better. As we go farther South, where 
the growing seasons are longer, we find 
the better farmers doing some great 
things with cover crops. For example, 
corn. The rows may be put four feet 
apart, and at the last cultivation a row 
of cow peas drilled between each two 
rows of corn. When the corn is harvest¬ 
ed the cow peas come on and make a rank 
growth before frost, or Crimson clover 
may be scattered through the growing 
peas. This growth plowed under the fol¬ 
lowing Spring fits the soil for another 
corn crop, and this can be kept up indefi¬ 
nitely, or until the corn insects become 
too numerous. Field beans make a fair 
cover crop. I have seen them broadcast 
with buckwheat, rye or rape. The beans 
grow until frost and while they do not 
make such a large growth they add nitro¬ 
gen and help the soil. Peas of all sorts 
have been used as cover crops. The Can¬ 
ada pea with oats in the Spring or with 
barley in late Summer and Fall will give 
a great mass of feed or organic matter 
for plowing under. I know of a case 
where a farmer in Central New’ York 
started in to fit a soil for potatoes. The 
soil was of fair quality only. In the 
Spring this farmer seeded oats and Can¬ 
ada peas with fertilizer. In late .Tune 
this crop was plowed under and buck¬ 
wheat and turnips seeded. About Septem¬ 
ber 1 .this went under and Canada peas, 
with a mixture of rye and barley, were 
seeded. The peas were better than in 
the Spring. The barley and peas were 
killed in November, but the rye lived 
over and was chopped under in Spring. 
The soil was as mellow’ as a sponge and 
gave a wonderful potato crop. The best 
potatoes we ever had on our farm are 
growing this year on an old Alfalfa field 
where the soil has this same mellow tex¬ 
ture because it is full of organic matter. 
There seems to be no possible way for us 
to get too much organic matter into the 
soil and no possible v T ay to grow full 
ci’ops unless our soils have enough or¬ 
ganic matter to keep them open and mel¬ 
low. H. w. c. 
Petroleum for Potato Bugs. 
I have demonstrated that petroleum 
will kill shell potato bugs by light spray¬ 
ing and will kill the very young ones and 
not hurt the tops. It will also kill the 
apple-tree wmrms if sprayed on them. If 
a hole is punched two or three inches 
deep in the heart of the burdock plant 
and a few spoonfuls of kerosene poured 
in the plant will soon become sick and in 
a couple of weeks will utterly wither 
aw’ay. d. p. b. 
Visitors “Bobby did the doctor say 
you had any pronounced illness?” Bobby 
-—“Yessum, but I couldn’t pronounce it.” 
—Judge. 
gipl!llll!ili!!!M 
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