682 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



grazing obtained ought to pay for the seed and labor. In fact it should 

 be worth more than the cost. The fertility thus brought to the cultivable 

 area would be clear gain. 



Third, land may be worn, weedy and much in want of humus, and it 

 is desirable to bring it quickly into a condition to grow some market- 

 able crop. The same plan may be followed as outlined above, with the 

 difference, that the greater portion of the corn or at least a large por- 

 tion of it is buried in the soil, or, should it be desired to cultivate more 

 and graze less, the land could be ploughed in the fall, worlted like a bare 

 fallow in the spring until about June 1 and then sown to corn, the resi- 

 due of the corn being ploughed under after grazing it for a time. But 

 it woui^ certainly bring up the land more quickly to grow both rye and 

 corn and bury the residue after partial grazing in both instances. In 

 this way the labor bill of drawing and spreading manure may be avoided 

 by making the soil and the sheep produce the fertility and also do the 

 distributing of the same. 



SHEEP GRAZING IN CORN. 



PROF. THOMAS SHAW, IN AMERICAN SHEEP BREEDER. 



Corn is grown not only to provide grain and fodder for live stock, 

 but it is also grown with a view to clean the soil. Thus, where corn is 

 grown, the benefits to the soil in consequence have come to be looked 

 upon as much the same as those which result from a bare fallow. As 

 a rule more stirring is given to the soil when growing a crop of corn 

 that is cultivated both ways, than in caring for the bare fallow. Stir- 

 ring the soil thus frequently liberates fertility, which was before inert, 

 hence when a crop of grain follows corn, it can easily obtain the neces- 

 sary food. This, in connection with the cleaning given to the land in 

 a majority of instances, insures a good crop. 



But it frequently happens that the corn crop is not clean. In some 

 instances the season has proved so wet at the time that the cultivation 

 should have been given, it could not be done properly. In other instances 

 the farmer has been so occupied that the corn crop could not be properly 

 cared for. In yet other instances, it may be well cared for up to the time 

 when cultivation ceases because of the height of the corn, and subse- 

 quently weeds spring up and mature before the crop is ripe. Persons 

 living in the east and accustomed only to reasonably heavy soils will 

 scarcely believe that weeds could start and mature thus quickly in any 

 soil, and yet this is a very common occurrence in many sections of the 

 Mississippi basin. In some areas it is quite as common to see much of 

 the corn foul with weeds as to see it reasonably free from the same. 

 When it is so the cleaning of the land is not affected, and thus far our 

 object in growing the corn is not attained. 



