CATTLE FOODS. 31 



make in drills, using from fifteen to twenty quarts of seed per acre. 

 I have grown the sweet varieties quite largely, but a large variety- of 

 common field corn will bring a very satisfactory crop, planted thin 

 enough in drill to yield fair sized ears in case the crop exceeds the 

 demands of the stock kept. A stalk of sweet corn will usually be 

 preferred b}- cattle to a stalk of field corn of the same size, age 

 and weiglit, but the seed is slower to germinate, and it is more 

 expensive than seed of field corn. Corn ma}' be planted at inter- 

 vals of a week or ten days, from the first warm weather, till early in 

 Jul}'. If i)iit in later, its growth is slow, and earl}' frosts will be 

 likely to injure it ver}' seriously. 



I suppose corn has been grown for green fodder, to a considerable 

 extent in Maine, for many j'cars, but I believe its culture may be 

 consideiably increased in all the dairy sections, and with satisfac- 

 tory results. It is gi'own, I suppose, for bridging over the usual 

 season of drought in early autumn, and is given morning and night 

 to cows that run in pastures all day. If one desires to increase his 

 business it may constitute with a ration of grain the entire forage 

 of the animals. The same ma}"^ be said of the other crops, I have 

 named — rye, oats, wheat, barley and millet. 



The last named may be sown at any time when the season is 

 suited to corn planting. I think this plant, in some of its varieties, 

 should be better known in Maine, than it seems to be, judging by 

 the numerous enquiries on the subject, addressed to the New Eng- 

 Imid Farmer. Millet, whether the common variet}', with a green 

 head, turning to amber as it ripens ; Hungarian grass, with its 

 smaller purple spike, or the later and larger variety recenth' intro- 

 duced from the West, is not a perennial, producing crops 3'ear after 

 3'ear, like timothy grass and red top, but it is an annual plant, and 

 is valued chiefly, because of its luxuriant and rapid growth, allow- 

 ing a crop to be grown in a comparativel}' short time after the seed is 

 sown. It grows best in hot weather, and like corn, likes a light, 

 warm soil, though it will do well on clay land, that is sufficiently dry 

 and mellow. It will make a crop of hay in fewer days, from the 

 seed, than any agricultural plant known to New England farmers. 

 It is so vigorous a grower, that it will for once, make a large growth 

 on soils not over rich, but successive crops on the same land will 

 require manure. One bushel of seed (48 pounds) is the quantity 

 usually sown per acre, and a smaller quantity would be too little. 



