24 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



Modern investigations in dairy feeding, by which we have 

 learned that a wider ration may be fed than was formerly sup- 

 posed, should give a great impetus to the production of home 

 dairy feeds. The mow of early cut, well cured clover hay, 

 properly blended with the corn silage in feeding, takes the place 

 of grain, increases the amount of protein, and adds fertility to 

 the land. But there are certain conditions necessary to the suc- 

 cessful growing of the clovers. They never grow in the old 

 grass fields. They do their work quickly and get out of the 

 way for other crops. They are at home on farms where intense 

 cultivation and short rotations are the rule. 



I doubt if, under average Maine conditions, clover should be 

 sown alone ; but combined with the grasses, and sown early in 

 spring, with a light amount of some nurse crop, it comes to its 

 best quickly and makes a fine summer or winter feed. My 

 judgment now is that the silo is the place for the corn and the 

 mow or the paddock the place for the clover. As a soiling crop 

 it fills an important place, when joined with corn and the 

 grasses. This is particularly true where complete soiling is 

 practiced and where the close cropped pasture does not enter 

 into the feeding. 



In choosing varieties of clover one should be governed by the 

 condition of his soil and the uses to which it is to be put. For 

 the silo, or for soiling, the mammoth will be found useful, while 

 for close clay soils, or for pasturage, the smaller red, the alsike 

 and the white, are of great value. In a paper of this kind it 

 would not be wise to go too much into detail as to cutting and 

 curing clover. Sufiice it to say that under all conditions and 

 with all varieties, early cutting should prevail. But few of 

 the heads should be allowed to turn brown. The curing should 

 be done as much as possible in the bunch, always cutting it when 

 the dew is off, tedding or stirring it, and then pitching it into 

 bunches, there to stay till fit for the mow, except, possibly, once 

 pitching over. 



OATS OR OATS AND PEAS. 



Of all the cereals that thrive on New England soils, oats are 

 most to the manor born. They grow over a wider area, care 

 less for frosts or floods, and fill an important place in a modem 

 system of rotation. Their principal uses on a dairy farm are 



