The Brinkley Argus

Winter Crops a Benefit to
the Soil.

While fall plowing is a great factor in improving soil conditions, yet it is well to go a step further. The soils of the south lose more fertilizing from the leaching action of winter rains than is taken from them by growing summer crops. This can largely be avoided by the use of winter cover crops. Of these there is probably none more generally known than the Rea Rust proof oat.

For the best results with oats the land should be deeply broken and well pulverized. The richer the land the greater will be the success of the crop. If there are any doubts of the capacity of the land it is well to use from two to three hundred pounds per acre of a commercial fertilizer com- posed of equal parts of cotton seed meal and a twelve to fourteen per cent acid phosphate. This can be sown with the oats and covered with them.

For oats it is well to break the land early in September. This breaking together with the subsequent prepara- tion, will save moisture, thus insuring a stand.

By all means get the best seed pos- sible and see that they are free from grass and weed seed. It has been the experience of all that the oat is the surest grain crop that can be grown in the south. Especially is this so on the light sandy soils. Not only is this so, but if planted in time, they will furnish an abundance of unsurpass- ed winter grazing for stock. It is well when breaking the land in early September to keep close behind the plow with a harrow. Otherwise the clods are apt to dry out quickly and give much trouble in their subsequent pulverization and the land must be well pulverized to insure a stand.

After seeding, a roller should be run over the land to firm it and this fol- lowed by a very light harrow. In the absence of the roller a heavy log or plank dragged over the ground will do much good.

These remarks are applicable to the planting of any fall crop. The use of the seed drill is preferable with oats but if one is not available, the seed may be sown broadcast by hand. Where the drill is used one and a half bushels of seed will be sufficient. If sown by hand it is safer to sow not less than two bushels. This grazing of winter oats, if on good land, will actually improve their yield.

Wheat, if anything, furnishes a bet- ter winter pasture than oats, especially on good land or if well fertilized. While the yield of grain is not as gen- erally reliable in all sections of the south, yet the grazing obtained from them will more than pay for the cost.

Another winter cover crop that is es- pecially valuable as a soil builder and preserver is Crimson clover. Crimson clover, unless sown early does not furnish very much winter grazing but comes in in early spring. As a hay crop it is not to be much recommended as it becomes too woody. But it is a legume hence very valuable as a soil builder. The land should be well prepared as for turnips and about 20 pounds of seed sown per acre. Hairy vetch is anoth- er leguminous crop that succeeds ad- mirably during southern winters on light sandy loam soils. The land is best fertilized for this crop with four or five loads of well rotted stable manure per acre. This is not so necessary as a fertilizer but more to supply it with the nitrifying bacteria. Another win- ter cover or catch crop not well known and to which more attention should be given is Dwarf Essex Rape. Sown in September on good land it grows rap- idly all winter and will furnish a very large amount of winter grazing. It belongs to the cabbage family and is eaten greedily by all animals, even in- cluding the farmer and his family.

So much for a brief review of win- ter cover crops. Wherever possible they should be sown upon the land be- cause they prevent the land from washing and they catch and hold the plant food that is rendered soluble in the soil during winter and that other- wise might be leached out by rains. And because they more than pay for themselves in the quantity of excellent winter grazing they furnish.

If the land is wanted for a summer crop before they mature the farmer may turn them into his soil in the green stage in February, thus getting an additional profit in the vegetable matter they supply.

S. A. KNAPP,
Special Agent in charge.