12 FORAGE CROPS. 



other classes of domestic animals than sheep, never- 

 theless there are circumstances under which it may 

 be fittingly grown to furnish grazing for cattle. In 

 the upper Mississippi basin and the country lying 

 still further north, grasses are much prone to lose 

 their succulence in the early summer, and frequently 

 they do not regain it again the same year. In these 

 areas much wheat is grown from year to year on the 

 same land. As a result, the lands become foul, and 

 must be occasionally summer fallowed to clean them. 

 It is while summer fallowing the land that corn may 

 be thus grown to provide pasture for cattle or horses 

 not at work. While the cattle are grazing the corn 

 much of it will be broken down and fouled, so as to 

 be unfit for food. Notwithstanding, much pasture 

 relatively can be thus furnished per acre. And when 

 the plow immediately follows the grazing, as it ought 

 to, the uneaten portion of the corn plowed under will 

 very materially increase the power of the land to hold 

 i moisture during the years following. The land will 

 thus be cleaned and supplied with humus in the one 

 season, and much pasture will have been secured at 

 no added cost, other than that of the seed. This 

 method of growing corn forage is applicable to all 

 lands that are to be summer fallowed, wherever they 

 may be located. 



But it is in providing pasture for sheep that the 

 best results are obtained from growing corn forage. 

 At the Minnesota University experiment station the 

 tests that have been made thus far in growing corn, 

 alone or in combination with other forage plants, to 

 provide food for sheep, have been decidedly encour- 

 aging. Further reference will be made to these experi- 

 ments in the closing chapter. The waste in pasturing 



