Short Talks With Our People 
Handling a Cover Crop 
In a recent issue you speak of the great importance 
of having cover crops. Fine! But who is going to do 
all the plowing the next Spring is what kills the game 
here. How can that be got ground? c. w. E. 
East- Aurora, N. Y. 
LOWING is not a necessary part of cover crop- 
ing. It is usually most desirable to plow the 
cover crop under, but this is not a necessity. If 
plowing cannot be done, the cover crop can be ent 
for fodder or hay. This is often done. Or the field 
can be fenced and hogs or cattle turned in to pas¬ 
ture. The object of the cover crop is to save the 
nitrates, prevent soil 
washing and produce a 
good crop while the 
land would otherwise 
be idle. Plowing un¬ 
der is not necessary. 
Field Beans in Silage 
What do you know 
about mixing ordinary 
white field beans with 
silage? Has it ever 
been tried, and if so, 
when should the beans 
go in— 'When the corn is 
ready, regardless of the 
condition of the bean 
pods? C. W. E. 
Very little, but no 
doubt our readers have 
had experience. The 
bean vines would make 
good feed along with 
the corn, but they will 
not give anything like 
the amount of feed 
that you can get from 
Soy beans or Lima 
beans. We prefer the 
corn alone.- 
Mixing Lime in Fer¬ 
tilizer 
Can I mix hydrated 
lime, acid phosphate and 
nitrate of soda so it will 
run through a drill? 
Will the lime release 
any of the nitrogen? 
A. W. E. 
You can. but we 
would not advise such 
a combination. Ground 
limestone or land plas¬ 
ter will be better for 
this purpose than any 
form of burned lime. 
The trouble with most 
forms of burned lime 
is that it causes the 
acid phosphate to 
“revert”—that is, be¬ 
come less available. 
Coarse limestone or 
plaster will give “bulk” 
to such a mixture with- 
° 11 1 a n y injurious 
chemical action. 
When to Mulch an 
Orchard 
I have some buck¬ 
wheat straw which I 
would like to use as a 
mulch in an apple or¬ 
chard. When would you 
use it? s. K. 
Light now is a good 
time if you can spare 
the labor. We put 
such mulch on at any 
time except during the 
^ inter. Spring is a good time—when the soil is 
bill of moisture. The mulch holds this moisture in 
(he soil, and thus keeps it cool and moist. In a dry 
season right now is a good time for mulching. Some 
tanners spend part of August in cutting brush and 
weeds along fence rows or lanes or in weedy fields. 
•\il this trash is hauled to the apple orchards and 
lulod around the trees. There is no question about 
bio benefit. We would not put this mulch on in 
^ ' ll ter, as it makes a nest for field mice. This 
s tu!t should be forked away from the trees when the 
ground freezes and the trunks protected with wire 
111 lath, or with a mound of coal ashes or earth, 
otherwise there is danger of serious damage from 
ufice, which live under the mulch in cold weather. 
Spreading Manure on Sod 
How about spreading manure on sod as soon as hay 
is cut, to lie until Spring, then plow for corn, potatoes, 
beans, etc.? a. y. s. 
This plan is followed by many farmers who prac¬ 
tice a rotation of grass, corn, potatoes and grain. 
In such a rotation corn follows grass. After haying 
the year’s supply of manure is spread on the sod 
and left there until the next Spring. There is prac¬ 
tically no loss from the manure. The grass and 
clover in the sod make a fine growth, and all is 
plowed under. The sod is as good as a cover crop for 
holding the nitrates in the soil, and the manure is 
in better shape than when put on fresh. 
Rye in Cabbage 
How about a cover crop of rye in cabbage, say to sow 
before last cultivation ? a. y. s. 
We have often seeded rye in late cabbage—in fact, 
rye is about the only crop that can be seeded so late 
in the season and live through the Winter. You 
cannot hope to have a full crop of rye with this late 
seeding, but it will be far better than bare soil. 
Soluble Chemicals in the Soil 
Do chemical fertilizers, such as nitrate of soda, acid 
phosphate and muriate of potash, make auy lasting im¬ 
provement in soil? G. w. K. 
Experiments show that when nitrate of soda is 
put on the soil the nitrogen in it dissolves in the soil 
water. When vigorous plants are growing in the 
soil most of this nitrogen will be taken up by them 
and utilized. On a bare soil, or where there are no 
living plants, all or most of this dissolved nitrogen 
will be washed out of the soil, passing away in the 
drainage water, and thus lost. That is one great 
argument in favor of cover crops. In many cases 
weeds provide this cover crop, but they are mostly 
killed by the frost, while the development of nitrates 
or soluble nitrogen goes right on until the soil 
freezes. With acid phosphate and muriate of potash 
the case is different. 
^ hen these chemicals 
are put on the soil the 
phosphoric acid and 
potash are dissolved— 
as in the case of the 
nitrogen. They are 
not. however, washed 
out of the soil so 
easily. They form new- 
chemical combinations 
in the soil as they 
pass through it. and 
are thus mostly held 
in solid form, whereas 
the nitrogen does not 
form these solid com¬ 
binations and passes 
on in the soil water. 
Thus the drainage 
water from a field well 
fertilized will usually 
show far more nitro¬ 
gen than phosphoric 
acid or potash. 
Nitrogen, in Manure 
Is it the same when 
large quantifies of ma¬ 
nure are used? • 
g. w. K. 
No, not exactly the 
same, because only a 
small part of the nitro¬ 
gen in manure is solu¬ 
ble like that in the 
nitrate of soda. The 
organic nitrogen in 
the manure is made 
over into nitrates by a 
chemical action which 
goes on in the soil. 
This action is most 
rapid during the latter 
part of Summer or 
early Fall, when the 
soil is warm and moist. 
At that time the or¬ 
ganic matter is turned 
into nitrates quite 
rapidly, and these ni¬ 
trates are in danger of 
being lost unless the 
soil is filled witl* the 
roots of living plants. 
Thus the cover crop is 
pa rticula rly valuable 
to follow corn, since 
that is the crop 
on which manure is 
largely used, while the 
corn is cut just at the 
time these nit-rates are 
being most rapidly 
formed. 
When to Fertilize Trees 
I apply a top-dressing 
ot nitrate and phosphate under bearing apple trees in 
Spring. The trees are not cultivated, but left iu sod. 
Do you think the phosphate does any good when just 
thrown on top of sod this way? Would nitrate alone 
do just as well? Would a small dressing of muriate in 
early Summer help peaches that are on a rather poor 
soil? I have used nitrate on peaches iu early Spring, 
but am not sure whether it helps or harms, though it 
seems a positive help to apples. a. r. 
In our own practice we rarely if ever notice any 
benefit to the apple crop unless the fertilizer is ap¬ 
plied very early—say in April. Many peach growers 
think the fertilizer helps the fruit if applied "any 
time in May.” We doubt it. The trees undoubtedly 
show the effect of nitrate of soda in stronger growth 
and better ’foliage, but we do not think the fruit 
itself is greatly helped until the following year. The 
A Yoinftj Reader of The Rural Xeiv-Yorker. Fig. J 
