Gleanings in bee culture . o the possibilities of this plant in buildingup and rejuvenating old soil. Indeed, it is surelybecoming known as a factor in the welfare of futuregenerations. Redlands, Cal., Oct. 20. P. C. ChadwiCK. A DESPISED WEED PROVES PEBCIOUS BOON TOFARMERS. The story of how this unappreciated nativeweed has been found to increase the yield of sub-sequent crops, following its incorporation into thesoil, to a greater extent than any other legume evertested in California, is told by W. M. Mertz, super-intendent of cultivations of the Citrus ExperimentStation of the University of
Gleanings in bee culture . o the possibilities of this plant in buildingup and rejuvenating old soil. Indeed, it is surelybecoming known as a factor in the welfare of futuregenerations. Redlands, Cal., Oct. 20. P. C. ChadwiCK. A DESPISED WEED PROVES PEBCIOUS BOON TOFARMERS. The story of how this unappreciated nativeweed has been found to increase the yield of sub-sequent crops, following its incorporation into thesoil, to a greater extent than any other legume evertested in California, is told by W. M. Mertz, super-intendent of cultivations of the Citrus ExperimentStation of the University of California at Riverside,in a circular on Melilotus Indica as a Green-manure Crop in Southern California, just publish-ed by the University of California, and obtainablefree by writing to the College of Agriculture at theUniversity. Here is related the story of how for many yearspast the University of California has been testing awide variety of cover crops at Riverside andelsewhere. Various clovers, vetches, and other leg-. FiG. 4.—Our Royal grapefruit tree close to thedining-room door. Short-cut from producer to con-sumer. FEBRUARY 1, 1916 131 Another remarkable merit of this new cover crop,sweet clover, is that it is extremely effective in pre-venting plow-sole, or irrigation hardpan, an ail-ment to which a large proportion of irrigated or-chard soils in California are liable. Frequent cul-tivatons of dry pulverized soils, together witJi fre-quent irrigation, tend to wash down the tine clayparticles and deposit them in a dense, hard layer ofvarying thickness just under the cultivated area,and thus soils become impervious to water. Sweetclover, however, though an annual plant, in sixmonths sends its roots deep down, often as much aseight feet. This great root system is extremely use-ful to the orchardist, keeping the deep layers of thesoil in good physical condition and opened up forirrigation. The increased production of a crop up to64 per cent is certainly wonderful if the
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbees, bookyear1874
