Forage Crops. 285 



roller may follow the seeding. But should there be a somewhat 

 large per cent of clay in the soil then the rolling would better be 

 deferred until the young plants are two or three inches high, when 

 the roller can be used without danger of producing injurious soil 

 conditions due to packing. In six to eight weeks from time of 

 sowing, with favorable conditions, cutting may begin though the 

 greatest feed value is not reached until the time the grain is 

 well in the milk stage. The commencement of cutting, however, 

 should not be delayed until that time for, if there is any consid- 

 erable area to be fed, the forage will have become too hard and 

 woody before all of it can be used to advantage. Commence cutting 

 or pasturing at or before the time of blossoming and continue 

 through the milk stage. If the area is greater than can be advan- 

 tageously used for forage and it is desired to cure a portion of it 

 for hay, then the cutting should be done when well in the milk 

 stage. It makes such a heavy growth and contains such a large 

 percentage of water that some difficulty is occasionally experienced 

 in the curing. 



In our efforts to determine the relative value of some of the 

 more common forage crops an experiment has been conducted 

 for two years, during 1895 and 1896. In 1894 a crop of corn was 

 grown on the land which had received during the previous winter 

 a small dressing of barn manure. The size of plats was one-twen- 

 tieth of an acre. At the time the grain was in the best apparent 

 condition for forage, one-half of each plat was cut and weighed 

 and a sample taken and analyzed. The other half was allowed 

 to mature the grain, when it was cut and threshed, and the weight 

 of grain and straw determined. The feeding value of the forage 

 was determined from the sample taken when the first one-half of 

 the plat was cut and all results as to yield and value are cal- 

 culated per acre. 



