*84 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Cover Crops 
Part n. 
What about Sweet clover or Alfalfa? 
I would not use either one as a cover 
crop. They are not suited for the pur¬ 
pose. It would be like hitching up some 
fine big plow team to make a rapid trip 
for the doctor. Whenever I • seed Sweet 
clover much after the middle of June it 
fails to show up the following year. It 
is more in the nature of Crimson or Al- 
sike to make the quick “jumpy” growth 
required for a cover prop. They are more 
like the “minute men” required for in¬ 
stant service as sharpshooters, but not 
for steady, trained work in the field. 
Evidently the best time to seed Sweet 
clover is in late Winj;er or early Spring. 
It is no good as a cover crop. We have 
found much the same of Alfalfa. It is 
out of its nature when seeded in the 
corn. It seems to me that Alfalfa is 
somewhat like the feeble or sickly child 
which, with good nursing, grows up to be 
a fine, strong man. The mature plants 
are wonders for vigor, but the baby 
plants will not stand rough usage. Al- 
IShe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 18, 1917. 
You just scatter this seed on the 
ground? 
Yes, we go through the corn and scat¬ 
ter the rye and then follow with the 
clover and turnips. 
How do you do it? 
By hand, since our fields are small. It 
requires judgment and experience to get 
on just the right quantity of seed, but 
after doing an acre or so you get the idea 
of quantity right. 
You scatter this seed right on the 
ground ? 
Right on the ground, just as it is at 
this season, usually somewhat weedy and 
compact. 
Any way of doing it by machinery? 
Yes, you can put a boy on a slow- 
walking horse and let the boy work a 
broadcast hand seeder as the horse goes 
along the row. In this way the boy can 
seed eight or nine rows at a round, by 
driving the seed out over the tops of the 
corn. Some of the seed lodges in the 
corn and you must plan to use an extra 
quantity. In some cases, where using 
clover and turnip seed several tin cans 
are used to the cultivator, so that they 
swing and jangle as the horse pulls along. 
A hole is punched at the bottom of each 
can so as to spill out enough seed for a 
rough seeding. There are several ma¬ 
chines for doing the work. The best one 
is just wide enough to pass along the 
row! There is a little box for dropping 
the seed and behind comes a set of teeth 
like those on the weeder to scratch the 
seed in. 
When do you start this? 
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AOttc-aiiiiiB ljmp 
A Couple of Chenry-tops and the Wise Hen with Her Class of Four, mentioned on page 856. Kg. 439 
Bike, Crimson and Red clovers will jump 
in the corn and dance. Young Alfalfa 
will lie back and yell for its nurse. Keep 
Sweet clover and Alfalfa out of the cover 
mixture. 
Why use turnips? 
They make a rapid, soft growth which 
decays quickly and fills the soil. The 
chemists do not find much plant food in 
turnips, but I notice they always leave 
their mark on any crop which follows 
them. I think they have some peculiar 
power of utilizing potash and phosphoric 
acid, and thus make what you may call 
a scientific companion for clover. 
What variety? 
I like Cow-horn turnips. This has the 
true turnip flesh, but is shaped much 
like a parsnip—^the tap-root going down 
deep into the ground. The yellow turnips 
are not so good for a cover cropping, but 
the flat white turnips do very well. 
What about Soy beans and vetch? 
The Soy bean is killed by frost and is 
not, therefore, so good for this sort of 
cover cropping. It is a great manorial 
plant if seeded early. I have some this 
year seeded in drills in June. They will 
grow until late August and then rye and 
clover will be seeded between the rows. 
Just before frost the tops, with the beans, 
will be cut off for shelling and the vines 
and the cover crop left for plowing under. 
Some farmers seed these beans in the 
corn, but, of course, this does not make a 
true cover crop, for that must be one 
to endure frost. As for vetch many far¬ 
mers praise it highly, but counting the 
high cost of seed it has not paid me as 
well as Alsike and turnips. I have 
bought a lot of mixed rye and vetch seed 
this year to try !t once more, but I ex¬ 
pect to throw in a little Alsike to make 
things sure. 
How much seed? 
Our plan is to use three peeks of rye, 
five pounds of Alsike and one of turnips 
to the acre. I would like to add half a 
pound of rape seed to this. Of Crimson 
clover I would use about 12 pounds and 
say 18 pounds of vetch. Some people use 
far more seed than this. They tell the 
story of the very close and pious farmer 
who used little pinches of seM in his field 
and went on saying: 
“The lA)rd bless the seed !” 
His neighbor threw in 10 times as 
much seed and as he went on said: 
“Confound the seed. Take it!” 
The man with the liberal hand had the 
better crops. 
Just before the last cultivation of the 
corn. 
What do you mean by that? 
There cofiies a time when the corn is 
‘ laid by.” That is when it is evident 
that nothing would be gained by working 
it any longer. With us this usually 
comes about the middle of August, and 
we plan to use this last cultivation to 
cover the seed of the cover crop. 
Suppose the corn has been plowed up? 
It is not so easy to get a good seeding, 
but we would, if possible, run both ways 
with the cultivator and partly level 
down. 
What about the weeds this year? 
Many of us cannot afford to get them 
out. If possible I shall go through with 
scythe or sickle and cut the wor.st of 
them off to lie on top of the cover crop. 
After this seeding—what? 
Let the crop alone. Cut the corn as 
you wmuld in any case, and let the cover 
crop stay on the ground until next 
Spring. 
When does this cover ci’op start? 
At once if the soil has enough mois¬ 
ture. It does not make a great showing 
until the corn is off. Then it comes on 
fast. 
Does the cultivator cover all the 
seed? 
No. It often pays to -go with a hand 
rake and scratch over the soil between 
the hills or along the drills. Some far¬ 
riers seed to grass in this way and get a 
good stand. 
Is this only for the corn crop? 
From the nature of the corn crop and 
the way it is usually grown this plan is 
of special value to it, but any land other¬ 
wise likely to be left bare thmugh the 
Winter should be covered. In some farm 
rotations potatoes are followed by wheat 
and grass, which, of course, make a gen¬ 
uine cover crop. In most cases late po¬ 
tatoes are not dug early enough to sow 
wheat and clover, but rye, with us, makes 
a fair crop up to November 1. Just as 
soon as the Summer crop is out the land 
should be covered by seeding another. 
Such crop^ as beans or cabbage may be 
handled in this way. 
What objections to it? 
The extra work is sometimes hard to 
carry out. In a very dry season the 
cover crop might take so much moisture 
as to hurt the corn. Of course, where 
Fall plowing is required the cover crop 
would not pay. In most cases bare 
ground in Winter is a losing game, and 
the cropping value of cornfields will be 
increased $10 per acre at least by seed¬ 
ing at the last cultivation. Having seen 
this worked out on maiiy farms and on 
different soils I feel sure of my ground. 
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