CATTLE FOODS. , 29 



Sheldonville. If I found a pasture, which h}' a littlo repairing ot 

 the out-side fence, would hold cattle so long as the feed was good 

 and abundant, I should certainly repair the fence and turn my stock 

 in after the ground was settled in the spring and tlic feed well 

 started ; hut, so soon as the feed became short and scanty, I should 

 take out all my best milkers, and let the young stock and dry 

 cows remain to use up what feed grew ; or I should feed the entire 

 herd, at the barn, night and morning, allowing the animals to drink, 

 perhaps, and take a little exercise in the pasture during a short 

 period each day. I should begin on the best plow-land near the 

 buildings to prepare for growing the food required for these morning 

 and night feedings. I might not remove every obstruction to the 

 plow at once, but as the best land near the buildings is to be con- 

 stantlj- devoted to ci'ops which require smooth lands, I should aim 

 to put it in first-class condition as early as practicable. 



If the season is autumn, I should select the most suitable spot I 

 could find, and put in a crop of winter rye to be cut the following 

 spring, to feed green. Winter rye may be grown where potatoes 

 or the corn crop has been removed ; or it may be sown on an inverted 

 grass sod. li^e does best on a warm, sandy loam, where water will 

 never stand in Avinter, and where the frost cannot destroy it by heav- 

 ing. Four bushels of seed per acre will, on suitable land, produce 

 a fine, heavy growth, and cutting may commence just as soon as 

 it will turn out a foir, paying crop, which will be as soon as the first 

 indication of heading is noticeable. It will nearly double in weight 

 during the next week or ten da3's, and if not all fed green, 

 should be cut and made into hay before the blossoms full. 



The land may then be ploughed and planted to potatoes, corn, 

 beans or man}- varieties of garden vegetables, or it may be sown 

 with other forage crop like millet or Hungarian grass. The weight 

 of the crop will depend very much upon the amount of manure 

 applied to the land at the time of sowing the seed, but one need 

 charge nothing to the crop for interest on capital, nor for the use of 

 the laud, as the rA'e will grow at both ends of the year, when the 

 land would otherwise lie idle. 



If the r3'e is followed by field corn, it ma}', in the northern por- 

 tions of New England, be necessary to select an early maturing 

 variety. The season of green cutting may be somewhat extended 

 by having two or more sowings from September first to October 



