990 
(THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 7, 1915, 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
The Cover Crop Problem. 
Part III. 
When To Use Cover Crops. —When 
the soil would otherwise be bare through 
the Fall or Winter. In some section or 
for some crops late Fall plowing is most 
desirable. Even in such cases I think it 
better to plow under a catch crop rather 
than bare ground. The corn crop per¬ 
haps comes first in importance. As we 
have seen there is most danger of losing 
nitrates from the cornfield because most 
of the farm manures are used on corn, 
while the crop is taken off early in the 
Fall. I think there are more losses in 
plant food from the cornfields than from 
any other parts of the farm. I would 
therefore always plan to seed a cover 
crop in corn. The potato crop is an¬ 
other. We usually fertilize the potatoes 
more heavily than any other farm crop, 
and there is great danger of loss unless 
the soil is kept covered. In many rota¬ 
tions wheat and grass follow potatoes. 
That is good practice because the potato 
ground is well cultivated and fertilized, 
and thus in good condition for grass seed. 
Of course, the wheat and grass act as a 
cover crop. In order to follow this rota¬ 
tion properly the potatoes must be out of 
the ground by September and that is im¬ 
possible where the later varieties are 
grown in the North. I know of cases 
where the potatoes are dug in October, 
and as soon as possible rye and barley are 
scattered over the field and harrowed in. 
This makes rough seeding, but it holds 
the ground as a cover crop. Most garden 
soils will be much better if covered with 
some live crop through the Winter, and 
all orchards which are cultivated in early 
Summer should be protected during the 
Fall and Winter. In fact the very prin¬ 
ciple of the cover crop is based on mak¬ 
ing otherwise idle land work at the time 
when work is necessary to save resources, 
and that lets in all farm land. 
Wiiat To Use. —As you can see, the 
question of selecting a cover crop is 
somewhat like selecting a breed of cattle. 
It depends on your soil, your latitude, 
your location, your crops—and yourself. 
How can there be differences in latitude 
and location? Here is a farmer on the 
lower Eastern Shore of Maryland on a 
warm sandy soil with climate tempered 
by the ocean and bay. Crimson clover 
and cow peas would hold high carnival in 
this soil. Here is another man in the 
same latitude, but in a cold mountain 
cove of West Virginia. Who would 
think of suggesting the clover and peas 
for him? Thus this cover crop proposi¬ 
tion is a thing for the individual to work 
out if he can. Having tried all sorts of 
combinations I shall, this year, use the 
following general mixture: Half and 
half barley and rye, half and half rape 
and Cow-horn turnips, half and half Al- 
sike and Sweet clover. That will mean 
for one acre three pecks each of barley 
and rye, one pound each of rape and tur¬ 
nips and six to eight pounds of clover 
seed. On some of the fields we will use 
Alsike alone, on others the Alsike mixed 
with the Sweet clover. The latter is an 
experiment entirely, and may not amount 
to anything. I know the Alsike will give 
us something at least. I may go in and 
scatter Sweet clover seed all over the or¬ 
chards in early Spring. The mixture here 
given is a safe one for the North. Those 
who care to try vetch or Mammoth or 
Crimson clover can substitute it for the 
Alsike and Sweet clover. I think the 
combination of barley and rye better than 
the rye alone, especially where other 
seeds are used with the grain. 
How Seeded? —Most of our cover crops 
follow corn. After potatoes or other har¬ 
vested crops it is easy enough to broad¬ 
cast or drill the seed and harrow it in. 
When you seed in corn however, you must 
get the cover crop in six weeks or so be¬ 
fore the corn is cut. We do this in about 
the following way : Usually the last, culti¬ 
vation comes about the middle of August. 
Farmers can tell when they would nat¬ 
urally “lay by” the corn. We mix the 
rye and barley together and scatter it 
evenly over the field. This is usually 
done by hand. A good man who knows 
how can scatter seed over about four 
rows at a time and do it evenly. It is 
possible to seed from a horse. You can 
put a quick boy on a slow horse and give 
him the grain in a Cahoon seeder. As 
the horse walks down the middle row the 
boy works the seeder and throws the 
grain quite evenly over about five rows 
on each side of him. This wastes the 
seed somewhat as part of it strikes on 
the corn and rolls down inside the head 
or catches in the leaf joints. The rape, 
turnip and clover seeds are all mixed to¬ 
gether and scattered in the same way in a 
separate seeding. While these seeds vary 
in size and do not give an exactly uni¬ 
form seeding this does quite well. Re¬ 
member that these seeds are scattered 
over the soil before it is worked by the 
cultivator. That tool is started after the 
seed is scattered. I like a cultivator with 
small, sharp teeth like a harrow for this 
work. You do not want to cover these 
seeds deeply—just scratch them in. It 
will pay to go both ways if the corn is in 
hills. If in drills we would follow along 
with rakes to scratch in the seed along 
the rows. It is a good thing to attach a 
dragging plank or stick to the cultivator. 
This is done by fastening a plank or joist 
with wires to the back of the cultivator 
frame. This permits the plank or stick 
to drag or scrape over the ground behind 
the cultivator, working in the seed and 
smoothing down the soil. For a full seed¬ 
ing we work both ways when the corn is 
in hills; when in drills we scratch be¬ 
tween stalks with a rake. There are sev¬ 
eral machines now made for drilling these 
crops. They are light and work one row 
at a time. They scatter the seed and 
scratch it in with teeth like those on a 
weeder or work it in with small disks. 
One thing about cover crops—or rather 
two things—must be remembered. The 
soil must be naturally good or well fer¬ 
tilized if you expect these extra crops to 
come to anything. On poor or light soil 
you can use chemicals to start and grow 
the cover crops—then plow them under 
and have the effect of a good manuring. 
But do not expect that these crops will 
grow and thrive without food. Again, re¬ 
member that these crops require much 
water. In a very dry time either the 
cover crop or the corn must suffer if they 
grow together and I would not advise the 
mixture of seeds in a drought. Better 
wait for rain even if you must seed rye 
alone. 
Notes. —The picture at Fig 371, page 
983, shows the growth of some of these 
cover crops at the first killing frost in 
Northern New Jersey. The tape measure 
will show the comparative size in inches. 
The Soy beans were seeded in July, after 
a crop of rye. The others were put in 
the corn not earlier than the middle of 
August. The vetch with us makes a slow 
growth during the Fall, but when it lives 
over Winter suddenly wakes up when 
Spring comes and grows like a weed. The 
picture also shows the peculiar shape of 
the Cow-horn turnips. They often grow 
three times as large as the one here pic¬ 
tured. . . . We are often asked how 
much fertility such crops add to the soil. 
The Soy beans, the clover, peas and vetch 
add some nitrogen—how much would be 
decided by the size of the crop and the 
richness of the soil. On a strong soil, 
well supplied with nitrogen, these plants, 
like any others, would use the soil nitro¬ 
gen first. On poorer soil they would be 
more likely to take nitrogen from the air. 
I think it a good plan on rather poor soils 
to use potash and phosphate on these 
legumes or pod-forming plants. The fol¬ 
lowing figures show what these crops may 
contain, but they do not prove that just 
because you scatter a cover crop in the 
cornfield you get this much plant food on 
one acre of land. 
These figures are taken from bulletin 
of the Delaware Experiment Station: 
Crops. 
Weight. 
Nitrogen. 
Potash. 
PilOS. 
Acid. 
Sov Beans— 
Top .... 
... 10,952 
Roots ... 
140.2 
48. 
40.2 
Vetch— 
Top. 
... 13,150 
Roots 
600 
121.2 
85.5 
27.2 
Cow-horn turnips— 
Top .... 
... 11,297 
Roots 
... 2,902 
109.1 
142.7 
25.9 
Rye . 
... 7,611 
24.7 
39. 
11.4 
Crimson clover— 
Top .... 
... 18,744 
Roots 
413 
134.4 
88.2 
61.2 
Of course the rye and turnips and rape 
do not add any plant food to the soil. 
They save much that would otherwise be 
wasted, and they make some potash and 
phosphate available. Their chief value 
lies in the fact that they add humus or 
organic matter to the soil, and that is the 
chief thing for which they should be advo¬ 
cated. 
We are often asked if it is possible to 
grow a crop like corn year after year on 
the same ground by sowing cover crops 
and using fertilizer and lime. Certainly ; 
we have fields which have done this very 
thing for eight or 10 years, and grown 
richer and more mellow. On one of our 
rough Eastern farms, under this plan, 
corn can bo grown in this way and fed to 
stock. The manure may all be crowded 
upon a few level acres for growing truck 
or fruit, and the hills kept productive by 
cover crops, lime and fertilizers. You 
can keep this up until the corn insects or 
diseases become too bad, so that it is 
necessary to change land. I wish I could 
make our farmers realize what a vast loss 
occurs through leaving the corn ground 
bare during Fall and Winter. This is the 
weak spot in many an otherwise strong 
system of rotation. What a shame to let 
it continue when all these willing workers 
of cover crops are ready to stop the 
v*iste. But understand this! Do not go 
off and say the Hope Farm man advises 
everyone North or South to sow the seeds 
he does, whether the soil be wet, dry, rich 
or poor. He does not advise any such 
thing. lie merely tells what seems best 
on his farm and assumes that you have 
the brains and adaptability to figure out 
what is best for you. H. w. C. 
Scientific or Business Farming. 
I have read with much interest E. F. 
L'ickin son’s article on “The Business 
Side of Agriculture,” and am in sub¬ 
stantial agreement with his conclusions. 
Yet it seems fair to go a step farther, 
and point out that his argument concern¬ 
ing college training as a preparation for 
farming applies with equal force to many 
other professions, and in fact is no real 
reflection upon the efficiency of agricul¬ 
tural colleges. 
Many an eminent lawyer especially of 
the elder generation, has never seen the 
inside of a law school, but gained his 
professional knowledge by study and 
practice in the office of an older prac¬ 
titioner. I myself knew a competent 
civil engineer, one instrumental in laying 
out the Northern Pacific Railroad, whose 
formal education ended, when his self- 
support began, at the age of ten. Such 
instances may readily be multiplied, and 
make one realize afresh the truth that 
natural ability, or special fitness along 
the lines of one’s chosen calling, is more 
important than any “scientific” training 
can be, and, if sufficiently marked, will 
enable a man to overcome all deficiencies. 
The college course is only one of several 
avenues of education in any line, and 
possibly the importance of specialized 
training is somewhat overstressed in our 
day. 
I recognize the force of Mr. Dickin¬ 
son’s point that the business side of 
farming receives too little emphasis, both 
in college and out, in preparing young 
men for that line of work. In fact, a 
knowledge of business methods seems now 
to play a large part in almost every pro¬ 
fession, not even excepting the law, the 
ministry, or a college presidency! How¬ 
ever, it is hardly to be expected that a 
lecturer in the law school should be able 
to give pointers to the successful at¬ 
torney, or an instructor in a “tech” im¬ 
prove on the practise of an able engineer, 
so why expect a like feat of an “Aggie” 
professor? The adjustment of theory 
and practise must be made by each 
man for himself, in life as well 
as in the calling, whatever that may be. 
Together with the special technical 
training which fits their graduates to en¬ 
ter upon one of several lines of agricul¬ 
tural work the agricultural colleges give 
their young men much of that general 
culture which enriches life and is never 
wasted. They have done much to open 
the eyes of our young men to the essen¬ 
tial dignity and importance of a profes¬ 
sion equally worthy of their enthusiasm 
whether it be called farming or scienti¬ 
fic agriculture. R. G. dayton. 
Cure For Ivy Poison. —One teaspoon 
of salt, one teaspoonful cooking soda, three 
teaspoonfuls chloride of lime. All that 
will lie on spoon of all three ingredients, 
put in a pint of soft water. Bathe the 
parts affected. W. w. W. 
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