CiKCVLAR No. 'Jl.— (Agros. 64.) 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE, 



DIVISION OF AGROSTOLOGY. ' ' 



[Grass and forage plant investigations.] 

 F. Lamson-Scribner, Agrostologwt. GAiRDFN 



[Corn is everywhere the king of fodder crops, and cowpeas are to the South what 

 the clovers are to the North. One supplements the other, and combined as they 

 may be in the silo, they constitute a ration of high feeding value. The practical pos- 

 sibility of growing and harvesting the two crops together is set forth in the present 

 circular prepared at the request of the Secretary of Agriculture by Mr. W. Gettys, a 

 prominent and successful farmer and dairyman of Tennessee. His methods of 

 handling cowpeas and corn for silage and fodder will be of interest to every farmer 

 in the South who is seeking improved systems of farming and stock feeding. — 

 F. L.-S.] 



COWPEAS AND CORN FOR SILAGE AND FODDER. 



OBSERVATIONS ON CORN AND PEA STOVER. 



In the South, at least in Tennessee and some of the other border 

 States, the silo has become a necessity to the dairyman and live-stock 

 breeder. It is the compensating hand of nature reaching- out to us 

 and makino- o-ood some of the natural deficiencies found in our South- 

 ern agriculture, and enabling us to compete successfully with the 

 West in making beef and butter. Nothing can till up the gap made 

 by a short summer crop, bridge over a fall drought, or draw reluc- 

 tant spring into the lap of winter so w^ell as good silage. When 

 the spring floods have drowned out the regular crops on the lowlands 

 or so delayed their growth that they will not mature in due season, 

 then the silo comes to the planter's relief and enables him to utilize his 

 crops, as he can in no other way, before they are caught and ruined 

 by the early frost. Or should the drought cut short his hay crop, he 

 still has the chance at some of the numerous catch crops, such as sor- 

 o-hum, millet, cowpeas, and corn. Any of these forage plants, if the 

 season is at all favorable, will advance far enough to make a fair crop 

 of silage. Low, wet, bottom lands that remain useless for anything 

 else till midsummer can profitably be used in this way. Even large 



I 



