FORAGE CROPS IN NEW ENGLAND. 159 



corn next year. The poultry-yard, some half-acre in extent, 

 is the only ground on the whole farm, exclusive of pasture, 

 •that has not been turned by the plough the present season, 

 while more than half of it has been ploughed or thoroughly 

 cultivated twice. 



A few days ago I cut the following paragraph from " The 

 New-England Homestead : " — 



" A graduate of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, whose name 

 is known to all our readers, and who is at present an exile from the Old 

 Bay State, writes in a private letter ; ' It is my intention to own a small 

 farm in Massachusetts, sooner or later ; and my whole object will be the 

 study of agriculture, in its various branches, from a purely practical stand- 

 point. I maintain that an average Massachusetts farm can support a cow 

 to the acre ; and this is one thing I shall demonstrate.' " 



"Perhaps it can," adds "The Homestead;" "but it is 

 very certain that not many of them do." 



My own experience convinces me that this is not too high 

 a standard. My farm has grown fodder enough to keep an 

 animal per acre, and is now producing a considerable portion 

 of the grain consumed, and also the seed required for sowing 

 and I am sure that I have by no means reached the limit of 

 production. Indeed, I sometimes feel that I have hardly 

 begun to realize the possible productive capacity of those 

 twenty-six acres. A considerable portion of the land now 

 lies idle several days or weeks every year, for want of a little 

 more help or a little closer calculation. 



I grew a crop of weeds after rye this year, that I was 

 ashamed of ; and I have had twelve acres of idle land this 

 fall that might have been now carrying a promising crop of 

 winter rye. Two crops per year does not come quite up to 

 ray ideal. The acreage the past year, as nearly as I can esti- 

 mate, has been 9 acres winter-rye, 7 acres oats, 5 acres millet, 



4 acres corn, 4 acres English hay (first crop), 4 acres rowen, 

 9 acres barley (for fodder), 1^ acres for grain, ^ acre winter- 

 wheat (part cut green, and part left to ripen), 1 acre potatoes, 



5 acres rye (sowed for next year's cropping), 3 acres barley 

 (sowed with rye for this year's cutting), 7 acres seeded to 

 grass, and 1 acre in garden : in all, 66 acres. 



The nearest approach I have ever made towards obtaining 

 the full use of an acre of land through the whole year was 

 with an orchard. It was sown with winter rye the previous 



