Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1909-07-07
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4. ON THE FARM. 81
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Cover Crops.


Versity, Athens, Ga.)
A cover crop is just what its
name signifies-that is, crop to
cover the ground and protect it dur
ing the winter from washing, freez-
ing, and other like troubles. The
name was first used in Cornell Bulle-
tin No. 61; some call them catch
crops, meaning that they take up and
use the food elemtns that are in the
ground after cultivation stops in the
latter part of the season; these foods
are incorporated in the plant and in
stead Of being washed away by the
winter rains are returned to the soil,
after having been held by the plant
all winter, by turning the crop under.
According to l.. H. Bailey, cover
crops help the soil in eight ways: l.
Preventing hard soils from cement
ing or pudding; 2, holds water until
1t has had time to soak into the
land; 3, dries out the soil in spring,
making early tillage possible; 4,
from frost; s, catches and holds the
teaching nitrates; 6, adds humus;
z, renders plant food available; 8,
takes nitrogen from the air, II it is
a legume.
Cover crops should be sown in the
orchard about the time that the
wood growth has stopped on the
trees; that is, just after the plants
have formed their terminal buds;
| for when the terminal bud is form
ed 1T shows that the trees have
stopped growing and are getting
ready to harden off their wood. The
cover is then put in and through its
growing takes up the water and
tends to retard the trees so that they
| will ripen up their twigs before frost,
and the ripper the wood the less dan
ger from winter injury.
The best practical orchardsts all
over the United States use cover
crops in their systems of orchard
management, and the question often
comes up as to the kind of crop to
SOW in the orchard; anu the answer
must depend upon conditions. Some
allow the weeds to take charge Of
the ground after they have finished
cultivating; if you could depend
! upon them to completely cover the
orchard this would not be such a
bad practice, but when you desire
weeds to grow they oftentimes will
not, besides they are apt to become
pest on the rest of the place, and
again they do not add nitrogen to
the soil though they may perform all
functions Of non-leguminous cover.
Catch crops may be divided into
two great classes, those that add nj
trogen to the soil as the legumes
and those that do not, as rye. AS
Bailey says, "The golden scale OF
| cover crops runs from rye to Grim
son clover" meaning that rye will
catch and make growth most any
where and the crimson clover needs
land that is in the best kind of tilth.
When orchards, as is often done In
this section are planted on old worn
out fields, probably the best crop to
sow for cover is rye, for it will ger
inmate and grow even If the land
is hard and cloddy. IT should be
turned under early the following
spring and the orchard thoroughly
cultivated until time to put in ano-
ther crop; this crop may be rye
again or peas and so on till finally
the land may be put into condition
to have crop of crimson or red
clover put on it.
1t Is well to rotate the clover crop
for the same reason that one rotates
his field crops; it is possible to get
| so much nitrogen in the ground by
| the use OF leBumes that the trees
will stop producing fruit and spend
all Of their time making wood. If
an orchard shows good growth and
i Is bearing lightly, it would be well
| to discontinue the use Of the le-
| gumes for few years. Another
caution must also be added in the
use of the cowpea; this plant should
not be used in a peach orchard in
sandy land, as 1t is subject to the
nemetode worm. A wise use Of the
legumes, however, will keep one
from buying nitrogen for fertilizer,
and nitrogen is our most expensive
element.
In the list OF cover crops from