36 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ripened, it is better to dig tliem, and tlien grow on the same land a 

 crop of barley for fodder, at the rate of one and a-half or two 

 tons per acre, than to leave the field to grow up to weeds, that may 

 have to be mowed and burned, before the potatoes can l)e reached. 



If you find late in June, you have a piece of grass land so badly 

 run-out that it will need plowing before another year comes round, 

 I believe you will do better to cut what grass there is, turn over the 

 sod, apply a suitable quantity of fertilizer, and sow to millet, getting 

 two tons of good fodder per acre, for filling you empty hay mows, 

 than to let it lie idle all summer. 



I believe that cultivated lands on side hills, are safer from blow- 

 ing and washing away tln-ough the late fall, winter and earh- spring, 

 when they are covered by a coat of winter r^-e or wheat, than if left 

 bare and exposed to the full action of the elements. 



I believe that two or three annual forage crops grown in one year, 

 add much to the fertility and improve the texture of soils by the large 

 amount of roots and stubble that is left to be turned under. The 

 clay soils of this State, it seems to me, would be greatl}' improved 

 in texture by such a course. The stubble from a heav}- crop of 

 winter rye cut green, almost equals an average grass sod, in its 

 amount of vegetable matter. Of course, it is understood that 

 maiuire or fertilizer, in sufficient amount, must be applied to make 

 a crop grow. 



The best rotation to follow in growing successiA'e crops the same 

 season, is a question for each to decide, according to his own i)ecu- 

 liar circumstances. Winter rye or wheat will follow almost all our 

 summer crops, except late cabbages and joots. An early variety of 

 field corn will have ample time to ripen fit to cut and stack, planted 

 after winter rye cut for fodder. Millet and fodder corn may be 

 grown after spring grains have been harvested, and all the spring 

 grains ma}' be grown after a crop of the same has ripened seed. A 

 heavy crop of fodder corn may be grown, by sowing the seed with 

 a drill, or planting by hand between rows of early potatoes, ten 

 days or two week before digging. The digging will equal one good 

 hoeing. A little fertilizer sprinkled on the rows at planting, will of 

 course, be required. 



In an orchard of bearing apple trees, chiefly winter varieties, I 

 cut in the summer of 1878, a crop of winter rye in Ma}' ; a full crop 

 of oats in July, which was followed by a heavy crop of barlc}', fit 

 for cutting, in September, or before it was time to gather the fruit 



