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The Effect of Longtime Use of Winter Cover Crops on Certain Physical Properties of Commerce Loam¹

ABSTRACT

A study has been made of certain physical properties of Commerce loam as affected by longtime use of winter cover crops preceding cotton. The treatments used were: (1) no treatment, (2) 40 pounds per acre of inorganic nitrogen, (3) common vetch, and (4) hairy vetch. The individual plots were sampled in 1955 and analyses made of the following soil properties: organic matter, total nitrogen, aggregation index, bulk density, noncapillary porosity, water permeability, field capacity, and wilting point.

The organic matter and total nitrogen contents were highest in the hairy vetch plots and lowest in the plots receiving 40 pounds per acre of nitrogen and in the untreated plots. The values for aggregation, bulk density, and noncapillary porosity showed that the physical condition of the soil was best in the hairy vetch plots, next best in the common vetch plots, and poorest in the untreated plots and the plots receiving 40 pounds per acre of nitrogen. The 25-year average per acre yield of cotton from the different treatments was: hairy vetch, 2,000 pounds; common vetch, 1,680 pounds; 40 pounds of nitrogen, 1,470 pounds; and no treatment, 900 pounds. The ability of the 40 pounds of nitrogen to produce an increase in yield over the untreated plots was not reflected in an increased organic matter content or an improved soil physical condition.

¹ Contribution from Louisiana Agr. Exp. Sta., Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Presented before Div. I, Soil Science Society of America, Nov. 14, 1956, at Cincinnati, Ohio.

² Associate Agronomist, Agronomist Emeritus, and Associate Agronomist, respectively.

Received for publication February 20, 1957. Accepted for publication March 29, 1957.