188 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



for manure, we are in hearty sympathy with the manuring through the feed- 

 ing of green crops. We know of no way in which the manurial resources of 

 the farm can be so rapidly enlarged as through the growing, during the sum- 

 mer, of a succession of crops for cutting and feeding. Not only the milch 

 cows, but every animal that is kept on the farm can be greatly helped in sum- 

 mer by green cut food. We once saw a striking example of this in a village 

 of North Carolina. The leading merchant of the place, who kept a number 

 of horses and mules for hauling, and also cows for family use, had an acre 

 lot adjoining his barn, which he assured me kept six horses and mules sup- 

 plied with food from June till frost. The land was sown in clover in Sep- 

 tember, and that was cut in the spring for green feed and hay. Half the land 

 was then manured and planted in corn, a few rows at a time. As fast as one 

 planting appeared a few more rows were planted till the whole half acre was 

 in corn. While this was coming on the second growth of clover on the other 

 part was being cut and fed. When the first planted corn had tasseled and 

 silked it was cut and fed and the rows at once replanted with corn, and so on 

 in succession, the last rows being planted again in August. In September 

 this part was manured and sown to clover, and the following spring after 

 the clover was cut, the other half was taken for corn and treated as before. 

 By constant manuring and the plowing of a clover sod, this acre of land made 

 a product that was simply enormous, and furnished an amount of feed that 

 one who had never seen anything of the kind could hardly realize as possible. 

 We feel sure that even in this case the substitution of the cow pea for the 

 second growth of clover would have given still greater results, for the green 

 pea vines, in connection with the green corn, would have made a completely 

 balanced ration, and would have been especially adapted to the needs of dairy 

 animals. There are still other crops that can be used in a similar way, such 

 as sorghum, which can be cut continuously, and reproduces from the sprouts, 

 without replanting during the whole season. There is hardly a farm on 

 which something of the sort could not be practiced with a small piece of land 

 near the barn kept well supplied with manure, and the products of which 

 would not only furnish the manure it needs, but would make a surplus for use 

 elsewhere. In the South, the cow pea alone, following a crop of annual 

 clover cut in early spring, could be made to keep up a succession of food from 

 June till frost ; for if not allowed to exhaust itself by blooming and seed mak- 

 ing, the pea will give a succession of cuttings of green feed during the whole 

 season. Even when pastured we have had the cow pea eaten down three 

 times in one season. When pastures are parched and brown, the man who has 

 had foresight to provide green food for cutting will be in a far better situation 

 than the one who has not provided for this emergency, and he will be raising 



