DAIRY MEETING. 145 



winter-kill, and the oftener you cultivate the more humus there 

 is in the soil, the more like a sponge it becomes, the better it can 

 stand a drought or excessive moisture, and the surer you are of 

 a liberal harvest. 



What shall these crops be ? T have already indicated that, on 

 land which is suitable, I regard corn as the leading crop to be 

 grown for fodder. I think it is the surest crop grown in New 

 England. It will yield more cow feed to the acre, and with the 

 silo is the easiest cured and best relished, by the stock. 



Next to the corn plant, and a very close second, is the oat and 

 pea crop. We have raised enough on one acre to winter two 

 cows, but one and one-half cows to the acre can safely be relied 

 upon. It is a very rich feed in protein. The pea comes the 

 nearest to cottonseed meal of anything we can grow here. Sow 

 one bushel of black-eye peas to the acre, as soon as the ground 

 is in condition to work, and harrow them as deeply as possible. 

 In from five to seven days, sow two bushels of oats to the acre 

 and harrow with a smoothing harrow. Follow that with grass 

 seed, and roll. With us this crop will yield very much more, 

 and is a richer feed for milk, than the clover plant ; hence I 

 cannot see the propriety of seeding corn ground directly to clover, 

 as some are recommending. 



Now, the third crop in the rotation is the only one that has to 

 pass through a winter, and the only one about which there is 

 much uncertainty ; and were it not for its wonderful renovating 

 properties, it would hardly be worth our while to try to raise it. 

 But when we can get a crop it leaves the land in much better 

 condition for succeeding crops than it could be in any other way. 

 When we get a good crop to harvest and a second crop to turn 

 under for corn again, it meets my ideal of farming perfectly. 



But this system of rotation is objected to on account of the 

 labor involved. There is less labor according to results obtained 

 than in anv other system we have ever tried, and with modern 

 methods and implements one man, with a good, nimble pair of 

 horses can accomplish more in a season than three men and four 

 oxen could forty years ago. To illustrate: This past season 

 we have had forty acres under cultivation, twenty in corn and 

 twenty in other crops. We have hauled and spread more than 



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