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The: Colorado Experiment Station 
clean cultivated. Where it is difficult to obtain a stand of clover, 
oats may be used, but it should be plowed under and not cut for 
hay. After this has been done for one or two years, it is generally 
easy to obtain a good stand of clover. 
Hairy vetch gives promise of becoming an important cover 
crop in Grand Valley. This is a biennial plant that should be 
sown in September and plowed under the following May. It starts 
to grow in the fall, stands the winter well and makes a heavy mat 
of green herbage by the last week in May. 
An Apple Orchard in Cover Crop of Red Clover, Grand Valley, Colorado. 
The use of cover crops has proven beneficial to the orchards 
in the Grand Valley and the practice should be extended to every 
orchard. When cover crops are grown, they should be left on the 
ground to plow under, as hay and fruit cannot both be grown on 
the same land successfully. 
The practice of dividing the orchard into several parts by 
fences and allowing hogs to run alternately in each gives promise 
of success where alfalfa or clover are used as cover crops. This 
permits moving the hogs from one part of the orchard to another 
when irrigating. The hogs eat up the culls and fallen fruit as well 
as the cover crop, and their manure is left on the ground, thus 
adding to the fertility of the soil. This practice is not recom¬ 
mended for orchards in which the trees are small and easily in¬ 
jured by the rubbing and rooting of the animals. 
The most serious soil problem in Grand Valley is niter. The 
presence of a large amount of niter was noticed several years ago 
