SOILING. 323 



may easily be made fertile, if not originally so. Of the grasses, 

 clover will furnish the earliest green fodder. It can usually be 

 cut about the 20th of May, or earlier, or later, according 'to 

 locality and on moist land, will furnish three or more cut- 

 tings. Where winter rye flourishes, it makes an excellent 

 soiling crop, and may be cut even earlier than clover, and will 

 furnish several cuttings in a season, and, according to Liebig, if 

 kept back the first season, by cutting, will mature a crop tho 

 second summer. On good laud it will furnish a large amount of 

 food. Oats are also used for soiling. Indian corn sowed at 

 times, fifteen days apart from the earliest planting, until the 20th 

 of July. Sorghum, on land suited to it light, warm soil free 

 from weeds, makes a valuable soiling crop, yielding abundantly.* 

 But clover and Indian corn must be the principal reliance for 

 early and late feed. The writer generally uses clover till timo- 

 thy is sufficiently matured; after timothy, early sowed corn; then 

 second cutting of clover and sowed corn till freezing weather. 

 There is little difficulty in arranging for a regular succession of 

 succulent food, from the 20th of Mayf to December. It would 

 be well to have one-fourth acre for each cow, in clover, and one- 

 fifth acre per cow, in corn, sowed at different periods. The bal- 

 ance of the feed can be obtained from the timothy meadows. 

 If any fears were entertained of a scanty supply for late autumn 

 feeding, more corn might be put in, and the surplus would be ready 

 for winter use. 



METHOD OF FEEDING. 



"Different, methods may be adopted in summer feeding. The 

 yard, a small field enclosed with a hurdle fence, the open 

 shed, the stable, all, or either, may be used as a place for 



* It must be borne in mind, however, that the effects of sweet foods, as sorghum, 

 may prove injurious to the conception of breeding cows, as suggested in a previous 

 chapter, on barrenness. L. F. A. 



+ In some sections of our country the green feeding will commence some days, or 

 weeks earlier. Mr. Stewart dates from his own locality. L. F. A. 



