24 



when the warm days of spring come, the clover grows so rapidly as to 

 keep down the weeds. On good soil it will make from 2 to 2i tons of 

 hay in May, with another lighter crop of hay or a good crop of seed in 

 Jnly. In favorable seasons it will make a third cutting, after which it 

 usually begins to fail, and the ground should then be plowed for late 

 corn. It is nndoubtedly the best of the clover family for rich soils 

 which are in good condition, but it is useless to sow it on barren fields 

 or on rough and poorly prepared lands of any kind. It has not been 

 satisfactory on either sandy or white lime lands. 



SOILING AND FODDER CROPS. 



The soiling crops available are not numerous, although there are 

 many grasses and legumes which might be used. Alfalfa is used more 

 than any other one plant, and on favorable soils its yield is heavy and 

 continues for a long time. In central Mississippi, Alabama, and Geor- 

 gia it can be cut once in six weeks from March until its growth is 

 stopped by fall drouth, while further south its growth is more nearly 

 continuous, Teosinte Avill outyield any other plant on the rich alluvial 

 soils near the coast, but it is not ready for use before midsummer. 

 Johnson grass is used extensively, while raillo maize, Kafir corn, Jeru- 

 salem corn, and other sorghums yield repeated cuttings from August 

 until killed by frost. In Florida, rice and Para grass are used largely 

 for soiling. A considerable amount of forage, most of which is used 

 on the farm, is made from oats, rice, corn fodder, and other annual 

 crops. Corn fodder, made by stripping the leaves from the stalks as 

 soon as the grain becomes hardened, is used very largely, and consid- 

 erable amounts of it are sold in the country towns. The forage made 

 in this way, when well cured, is of excellent quality, but so much work 

 is necessary in gathering it that it can not be made profitably with 

 hired labor. A large part of what is saved is gathered by laborers on 

 shares, the share of the planter thus costing him nothing except the 

 injury to the grain crop, which may amount to as nuich as 18 per cent 

 of the grain when the fodder is stripped before the leaves have ceased 

 their growth.^ 



When oats are cut just after heading, they make hay of the finest 

 (juality, though if allowed to stand a few days too long but little of the 

 straw will be eaten. As the crop is one which can be grown during the 

 winter on ground from which corn or some other crop has been har- 

 vested, and is otf the ground in time for planting in the si)iiiig, it is 

 often the cheapest hay crop which can be grown. 



nice is grown for hay near the coast, and has about the same hay 

 value as oats in the northern sections. Two successive hay crops are 

 often grown (m the same ground during the year, the yield of each crop 

 being about the same as that of oats, averaging about one and a half 

 tons i)er acre of each. 



'Bulletin No, 30, Mississippi Agricnltunil Experiment Station, 



