Vhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1067 
A Talk About Cover Crops 
O N page 1043 was printed a short article about 
seeding Sweet clover in corn as a cover crop. 
It was written by Prof. II. It. Cox of the New Jer¬ 
sey Experiment Station. We find that more and 
more of our readers are interested in this cover crop¬ 
ping. and so we have asked Professor Cox a few 
questions about it. 
Do you advise seeding a cover crop in corn? 
Corn is generally recognized as about the most 
difficult cultivated crop in which to get a good stand 
of a cover crop. Some farmers have given it up and 
prefer to sow rye or wheat after the corn is cut and 
shocked in wide rows. Yet it seems to he a good 
practice for many farmers to keep on trying to get a 
cover crop established at the last working of corn. 
On the whole, what is the best cover .crop? We 
like to seed rye in the combination. Yetcli is good, 
but it mixes in with rye or wheat. It is hard to sep¬ 
arate it from the grain. 
The best cover crop to use depends upon several 
things. I quite agree with you that if one expects 
to raise rye or wheat for grain in the future, hairy 
vetch may well be omitted. Many men do not like 
rye for sowing at the last cultivation since rye is 
sure to be badly attacked by rust and lose many of 
its leaves, to add to the other shortcomings which 
rye has as a cover crop. I am not against rye. 
It fills a distinct and 
valuable place, but its 
place should be recog¬ 
nized. 
We have had little or 
no trouble from rye 
rust. We think this 
grain helps the other 
seeds of the combina¬ 
tion. But what can you 
say of Sweet clover? 
I find a number of 
men in this State who 
have had marked suc¬ 
cess with Sweet clover 
as a cover crop when 
sown in corn at the last 
working. There is no 
cover crop more valu¬ 
able than Sweet clover 
if you can get it to take. 
The seeding charge is 
comparatively low. The 
crop grows more vigor¬ 
ously than other clovers 
and it is Winter-hardy, 
even if it heaves badly 
during the Winter. I 
would prefer to use 
scarified seed for Sum¬ 
mer sowing, although 
unscarified seed is pre¬ 
ferable for Winter sow¬ 
ing. 
I am thinking of seed¬ 
ing rye and Sweet clover in part of a cornfield as 
an experiment. 
When any of the clovers are used as cover crops 
I believe that mixed seedings should be made, rather 
than straight seedings of one crop. Your suggestion 
about rye and Sweet clover sounds fairly good, if 
the Sweet clover fails, the rye is apt to make a fair 
showing. I would not sow the rye too thickly; from 
two to three pecks of rye with 10 to 15 lbs. of Sweet 
clover should be the right amount to use to the acre. 
In parts of New England it is quite a common 
practice to seed grass and clover in the corn. Tf 
the seeding is good the crop can be left for a mead¬ 
ow. If it is a poor stand it can be plowed under for 
green manuring. Red-top and Alsike clover often do 
well under such conditions. I have seen several 
farmers who seed Timothy after potatoes as a cover 
crop and are well pleased with it. 
Several men in North Jersey have had marked 
success sowing clover in mixture with grass, either 
Timothy or Red-top, for cover crop purposes. I 
should say that if the soil were sufficiently sweet 
and inoculation were provided, a mixture of Sweet 
clover and grass would be good. If the soil had not 
been limed a mixture of Alsike and grass would be 
better. It seems rather unusual to consider grass as 
a cover crop. Yet it has given excellent results and 
mixes well with the clovers. 
Thera are of course cases where seeding with 
clover and other small seeds in the corn would not 
pay. 
It is hardly necessary to remark that success with 
clover in corn is usually dependent upon the mois¬ 
ture conditions for the few critical days during 
which the young seedings are becoming established. 
We have recently published a brief circular on cover 
crops, which you probably have not seen. 1 am in¬ 
closing a copy herewith. It may contain an ad¬ 
ditional thought on this subject. Sometimes even 
when the cover crop starts well it may injure the 
corn by taking too much moisture from the soil. 
What is the latest thing about cover cropping? 
There is another angle to the cover crop ques¬ 
tion in connection with corn which might be re¬ 
corded here. We have found that sowing cow peas 
and Soy beans in early sweet corn at the last work¬ 
ing is good practice. The last working of early 
Sweet corn comes at such an early date that the 
Winter cover crops often have a hard time of it be¬ 
tween the subsequent hot weather and the Summer 
grasses. Cow peas or Soy beans can stand these 
unfavorable conditions much better. Furthermore, 
sweet corn does not shade the ground as much as 
field corn, and the peas and beans get enough light 
to make good growth. Late in the Summer the peas 
or beans are turned under along with the corn¬ 
stalks and a Winter cover crop seeded, thus giving 
two green manure crops a year. 
Home Berry Supply From Progressives 
1 WAS much interested in your Hope Farm remarks 
regarding Progressive strawberries; in fact, have 
been interested for several years in the chronicles 
of II. W. C. of his adventures in strawberry crop¬ 
ping. Answering his question as to whether Pro¬ 
gressive will give him a good Summer and Fail 
fruiting after the big Spring crop, I will tell him in 
advance that if his ground is in as good shape as it 
ought to be with the fitting he says he gives his 
strawberry land, he will get a good yield until Oc¬ 
tober. 
Perhaps, as II. W. C. has related so often his 
methods of growing strawberries for market,' he 
would be interested in a way of maintaining a home 
garden of them without the handicaps of the com¬ 
mercial grower; and perhaps The R. N.-Y. folks 
who grow merely for home use will be interested. 
This is my tenth season with Progressive. For the 
last five years I have had no other variety. I came 
from a big farm to a five-acre suburban place in 
1920. As the Progressives had been the best part of 
my farm strawberry patch, I decided to let them go 
It alone on the little place. I planted only 600 
plants, in 12 rows about 50 ft. long, on May IS—so 
late I had little hope of getting anything that Sum¬ 
mer. To make it worse, there was no rain for three 
weeks thereafter. About half the plants died. Then 
we got some good rains, and in September we 
canned enough berries from that little patch to last 
all Winter (we eat them daily), besides having 
plenty of fresh ones for use from the middle of 
August on. The next Spring a very heavy crop set 
(the number of plants had been increased to 1,200 
by transplanting runners), but frost blasted it too 
late for a Spring recovery, so we canned in Sep¬ 
tember again. In 1922 the Spring was made to 
order for strawberries. We were surfeited, and the 
crop was all in the cans before the middle of June. 
Before July 1 the Summer bloom had set in, and the 
good production until October is the basis of my 
prediction that the Hope Farm man will get a pleas¬ 
ant surprise this year. 
My method of preparing the ground and setting 
the plants is about the same as H. W. (’. has de¬ 
scribed at various times. I used to set new nursery 
plants every year, but in this five years’ experiment 
have used only my own runners and kept the small 
patch on the original little piece of land. 1 fertilize 
with chicken manure, without any commercial mix¬ 
ture, because the strawberry plant is a vine that 
gives better results the bigger it gets. And the 
growth that these plants make constantly con¬ 
founds me. Some of them are nearly a foot high 
and they have berries all over them. Big berries, 
too; not many of the bothersome small ones which 
II. W. C. complains of. I ascribe this to the chicken 
manure. Also I give credit to the variety of plant, a 
pedigreed strain which has been perfected to a sur¬ 
prising degree. Perhaps the method of handling 
after the plants once are started has something to 
do with it. 
This is to keep both runners and buds oft’ the new 
plants until they reach a good size. Then if I want 
berries I still keep the runners off, and if I want 
more plants I keep the 
buds pinched off for a 
while. In the second 
year, when the plants 
are as husky as potato 
plants, both berries and 
runners may grow at 
the same time without 
harm. After the Spring 
fruiting I immediately 
fertilize again with hen 
manure, raking it in 
well. Twice a year, in 
order to keep the ground 
mellow, I go through 
the patch, spading up 
between the rows, using 
a six-tined manure fork. 
July and August is the 
time for renewing the 
bed. I use only the 
most promising plants. 
When 1 find a few par- 
ticularly good ones, I 
immediately look over 
the rows for an equal 
number of old plants 
the leaves of which are 
smaller than they should 
he, indicating that they 
have passed their prime, 
dig them out, bury a lit¬ 
tle manure in the holes 
quite deep, and put the 
new plants in their 
places. By this means the strawberry bed is always 
new, always mellow, always well fertilized. 
Of course, such methods would be impractical in 
commercial growing. But for the man whose straw¬ 
berry patch is something of a pet, it brings remark¬ 
able results. I might add that I never have any 
serious trouble with leaf curl or other strawberry 
plants diseases. mokris j. white. 
Michigan. 
Selling Goods by Public Institutions 
| We find considerable interest in this question about 
selling flowers, vegetables and plants by public institu¬ 
tions. There is opposition by local dealers. During 
our investigation of the subject we were told that the 
matter came into the courts in Massachusetts. From 
the following it appears that this is a mistake.] 
BOUT 20 years ago there was considerable agi¬ 
tation in this neighborhood, promoted by a few 
local growers, against the practice of the agricul¬ 
tural college of selling its produce in local markets. 
On several different occasions public hearings were 
held by the trustees at which time all protests were 
freely heard and carefully considered. The result 
was, roughly stated, that the trustees thought it ex¬ 
pedient to restrict the sale of college products in 
local markets. The question was never brought into 
court in any form; and indeed it is hard to conceive 
how such action could be taken, as no one has ever 
questioned the legal right of the college to sell its 
produce to any customer whatsoever. 
My own judgment is, after long study of this 
question, that every producing department in an 
agricultural college ought to be free to grow its 
crops, produce its live stock, carry on its other prac- 
This picture was taken some years ago, a little before the modern development of the tractor. The farm here 
shown had always been worked by horses until the tractor demonstrated something of its possibilities. The machine 
is right at home on such smooth, open fields, and such land stretches through Central and Southern New Jersey 
everywhere. The tractor has now become so common that many of us do not stop to consider how it has changed 
the character of farm labor. 
