Excerpt from Cover Crops for Porto Rico

Any quick-growing crop which will make a thrifty top and root growth and will not, if it escapes cultivation, become a weed, may be used as a cover crop. In most localities of Porto Rico any such crop is preferable to clean cultivation. The selection of the plant will depend upon its resistance to disease and insect enemies, its vigor in seasons when desired, its habits of growth, and what it returns to the soil. Since nitrogen is an expensive fertilizer element and one which is present in comparatively small quantities in most Porto Rican soils, the choice will be from the number of leguminous plants which, in addition to the good qualities of other plants used for cover crops, have the power of storing in the soil nitrogen which they take from the atmosphere.

The selection of legumes suited to the peculiar needs of the fields in which they are to be grown is of great importance in Porto Rico, as there is a great variety of soil types, a wide range of rainfall for different sections, and a great difference in the length of the growing season and habits of growth of the different plants, [which suit them to a peculiar condition. Soils devoted to horticulture here are of two general classes - the light, sandy types, and the heavy, clay loams. The surface of both is subject to drying out quickly when rainfall ceases, and should be protected from the intense sun heat throughout the long summer. Vegetable matter is needed for bind ing the sandy types, for loosening the heavy ones, and for enriching both, and. A Vigorous grower should be planted to supply it. The heavy soils are, as a rule, poorly drained and require a crop that will thrive under such conditions, while those for sandy areas must resist the short, intermittent droughts and be capable of sending out a large root system which will enable them to thrive where the fertility is low. An extensive root system is needed also to prevent surface wash ing which in every locality results from the heavy rains.

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