The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1916-09-20
Small Grain and Cover Crops
From the Southern Ruralist.


crops planted in the fall which hold the
land during the winter may be called cover
crops. Clover, vetch and alfalfa are legu-
minous crops. Any crop, in fact which
grows during the winter, thereby holding
and utilizing the plant food which would
otherwise wash or leach away, is a cover
crop.
Where land is cultivated all summer with
crop like cotton, for instance, a great
deal of plant food is made available near
the surface which is not used by the crop.
A large part of this plant food will be lost
before next spring unless some cover crop
is planted on the land to take it up. 1t will
wash away, leach into the subsoil, or revert
to an insoluble form. This is especially true
in the South where the land never freezes
for any length of time and is left bare and
exposed to the rain with nothing growing
on it. This is the real reason for the plant
ing of cover crops-to save this waste-and
it will pay to plant some such crop even
though the crop is not allowed to mature,
but is plowed under when preparing for
some other crop in the spring.
Wheat-ThlS crop requires a fine, firm
seed bed for best results, and one should
avoid turning under grass or cornstalks or
trash of any kind, as this makes the land
loose underneath 1t is much better to
break closely and deeply with long, sharp
scooter on single stock, which will leave the
trash the surface. Then you can har-
row and drag this down and it will act as a
mulch and protection to the young grain.
Moreover, the plant food that has become
soluble in the surface soil will be right
where the young plants can use it. On the
other hand, if you turn this under with
big turn pillow, a large portion of it will be
buried too deeply to do much good. This
is one reason why wheat will do so well if
planted right between the rows of cotton
I
ton.
Where it seems necessary to break the
land with large pillow, much more work
will be required to fit it properly. 1t should
be narrowed and dragged and rolled and
worked over with a cutaway and narrowed
and dragged again until it is thoroughly
worked down and fine and firm. This extra
work will also make available considerable
plant food which will pay well for the time
and labor expended
In the present state of the fertilizer mar
ket, it will pay best to use acid phosphate
literally when planting and top dress with
nitrate of soda in the spring. If your land
is well supplied with vegetable matter, you
can use soft phosphate rock to excellent ad-
vantage, and this will be much cheaper than
the acid phosphate and will do as we'll under
these circumstances.
Also plant your wheat with a seed drill if
you can possibly procure one. A drill will
give you an even stand over the whole field
which will result in a substantial increase
in peterborough to pay good interest on
the investment This years wheat crop in
the West is short. The price is going up,
and will undoubtedly be very high next
year You should take advantage of this
and grow wheat. Plant about the middle
of October
Oats-Last spring good many farmers
made failure in their oats on account of
the very dry weather in April and May
u, I'll
those sown late in the fall Now there is
no use getting discouraged because your
crop is a failure one year. The big, sue
cessful farmers are the ones who go right
ahead and follow a regular crop rotation in
which the oat crop has its place every year
Next year some other crop may fail and you
will need those oats and will wish you had
planted this fall.
Our experience proves that oats are a
very sure crop one year with another; also
that we are more than ever sure of crop
if we plant early-Septembe Is to Octo-
Der Is. November 1 is too late in upper
Georgia; the plants do not have time to be-
come well established before cold weather,
and are more likely to winter kill and never
make as large crop the next spring.
The preparation of the land should be
much the same as for wheat.
Rye-The writer has never grown rye
except on small scale to cut green for
feed in the early spring and for winter
grazing. We have always MANFRED our rye
patch heavily and for the purpose intended
found it very profitable. Rye will make
good cover crop on land too poor to produce
clover. and will add vegetable matter to the
soil when turned under in the spring.
Vetch-Vetch is planted usually with rye
or oats to hold it up. 1t makes excellent
hay grown in this way and will add nitrogen
to the soil, as it is leguminous crop. Ow-