WATER IN AGRICULTURE. 167 



neglect and exhaustion. This matter of securing 

 or providing rich, healthy, green food for milch 

 cows is certainly one of much importance, and 

 should be fully understood by dairy farmers every- 

 where. We should learn that all edible plants 

 which are green and juicy, and which animals Con- 

 sume with apparent relish, are not necessarily 

 nutritious or profitable as food. We should learn 

 that the richest varieties of grasses and stalks of 

 the cereal grains are dwarfed and even become dis- 

 eased under imperfect cultivation. The product of 

 a field of clover or timothy grown in deficient sun- 

 light, or under circumstances where there is an 

 excess of soil moisture, or where the plants are 

 crowded, has really a very low money value com- 

 pared with that of another produced under differ- 

 ent conditions of light, moisture, and space. It is 

 a common practice in Eastern Massachusetts, and 

 perhaps in other sections, to grow the corn plant 

 in drills, or in a mass from broadcast sowing, to 

 feed to milch cows late in summer when the pas- 

 ture grasses fail : a kind of food for animals not 

 profitable to raise ; not because the maize plant is 

 not rich and succulent, but because the conditions 

 under which it is grown are unfavorable to its per- 

 fect and healthy development. The natural juices 

 of the plant are richly saccharine at maturity, when 

 grown in hills in open space, with plenty of air and 



