84 



this process. Callaicay : The most common mode is to graze the clover down after it 

 blooms, or cat for hay two or three years, then plow under in August and sow in 

 wheat. The best plan to enrich the land is to plow all under after the seed ripens and 

 let it come up again in the spring. I know that this will enrich land very fast. 

 Howard : In June, clover is cut for hay, or hogs turned on it, and so treated for several 

 seasons. Then the aftermath is turned under in autumn, and a good crop of whatever 

 is put in is sure to follow. Lincoln : The almost universal practice is to sow clover on 

 ■winter- -^heat in the spring ; after cmttiug the wheat the stubble is pastured by hogs, 

 cattle, and horses. The next spring no stock turned on before the clover is in 

 bloom ; then what is needed for home-consumption is cut, after which the hogs, cattle, 

 and horses are again turned on. The third year the same process is repeated up to the 1st 

 of August, when the ground is plowed and left to mellow till about the 20th of Septem- 

 ber. It is then planted in wheat, the drill being almost universally used. This prac- 

 tice insures a good crop of wheat and improves the soil. Johnson : The usual practice 

 is to pasture with hogs, then turu under what they leave. One farmer, with some 15 

 acres of red clover and about 200 hogs, says : " That clover-field, for feed alone, is 

 ■worth double the amount of laud in corn, is good feed while there is no corn, and 

 ■n-hen I turn it under I get nearly or quite one-third more corn the first season than I 

 should without it." 



WINTEEING FAEM-AI^IMALS. 



The care of domestic animals involves considerations of increasing 

 importance and complexity as civilized settlements advance over our 

 continent, and as reliance upon the spontaneous products of the soil 

 becomes more precarious. The necessity of providing in summer for 

 the unproductive season of winter enforces a practical study, not only 

 of the methods of increased production, but also of economical feeding. 

 The inquiries of our March circular elicited a vast amount of specific 

 information showing the practical treatment of these problems by 

 American farmers. The field of inquiry being so extensive, embracing 

 sucli a variety of climate, soil, and production, it was not at all surpris- 

 ing that wide differences in ideas aud methods should be found in differ- 

 ent regions. In every part of our country, except the extreme South 

 and some portions of the Pacific coast, a portion of the year fails to 

 yield fresh supplies of green food for farm-animals, necessitating the 

 storage of dry food to tide over the winter. In a multitude of cases 

 this obligation is imperfectly felt, and in many others entirely ignored. 

 In some parts of the country farmers manifest a culpable inhumanity 

 toward the brute creation, which is also a stupid disregard of their own 

 interests, in failing to supply shelter and food for their farm-animals. 

 The opposite policy, however, finds frequent illustration in the course 

 of intelligent farmers in different States. These have discovered that 

 true economy in live-stock production embraces a generous treatment 

 of animals, and that in this case, as in all others, true interest is asso- 

 ciated with humanity aud duty. 



In interpreting the general results of our. March inquiries, attention 

 will first be directed to the feeding-material provided for the support of 

 farm-animals during the inclement season. The most natural food of 

 cattle and sheep is grass, green in summer aud cured into hay for win- 

 ter. Horses, milch-cows, and swine are generally provided with a more or 

 less liberal allowance of grain, and in some cases roots to a very limited 

 extent. The great staple of winter-provision, however, is hay, which, 

 in different parts of the country, exhibits a very great variety, both in 

 its material and mode of curing. 



Constituent peoportions of the hay-crop. — In ]S"ew England 

 the cultivated grasses proper cover Irom two-thirds to three-fourths of 

 the hay-fields. Of these, timothy {FhUum pratense) is the prevail 



