1884.] QUESTIONS. 231 



is sown for pasture with more or less success, but I do not 

 believe much in pasturing on poor land. 



Question. Does this system of raising two or three crops 

 a year exhaust the soil ? 



Mr. Cheever. I should say not. Whether the soil is 

 exhausted more by growing a crop of seed than by growing 

 a crop all ready to form seed, with all the material in the 

 stalk, I suppose chemists must answer. 



Question. Has Mr. Cheever had any experience with mil- 

 let and Hungarian grass ? 



Mr. Cheever. Large experience. 



Question. How will they grow as compared with rye ? 



Mr. Cheever. Rye has considerable value because it will 

 grow when nothing else will,- in late fall and early spring. 

 Millet will not grow then ; it grows only in hot weather. My 

 rule has been to sow rye early ; then sow oats that come 

 early, then spring barley and spring wheat ; and, after the 

 weather comes warm, put in millet, and corn a little later, so 

 that I know it will mature, and then put in barley. Millet is 

 excellent food. My cows seemed to want me to think it 

 wasn't worth anything, — advised me not to raise any more ; I 

 thought it wasn't worth much the first year. Cows, like 

 human beings, do not like new food. Many of us did not 

 like tomatoes when we first tried them, but we may be exces- 

 sively fond of them now. I have found, in later years, that 

 millet was fully equal to the best English hay. In feeding 

 forage crops, I feed whatever I happen to have all summer 

 long. 



Question. Have you had any experience with lucerne ? 



Mr. Cheever. Very little, and very unsatisfactory. I 

 have sown a patch of lucerne, or alfalfa, which is a kind of 

 clover which does well in certain soils, but I think we are too 

 far north. It does well in some climates, but I cannot recom- 

 mend it from my experience. 



Mr. Gold. The first question I took from the question 

 box was the one which has just been asked of Mr. Cheever 



