190 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



soil is not conducive to rapid fattening, it nevertheless keeps the pigs in a 

 thrifty condition during the early summer till there are cow peas for them 

 to gather and peanuts to glean, and renders their keep very cheap till the time 

 when they are fattened for slaughter, with corn. The Jerusalem artichoke 

 is a favorite food with some, and on land of a sandy character, where the hogs 

 can get them all out, they may have some advantages, being very hardy and 

 furnishing food and exercise at a season when there is nothing else. But on 

 a heavy clay soil, which would be seriously damaged by their rooting at the 

 season when the tubers are available, and from which they could hardly 

 glean the whole, the artichoke may become an intolerable weed, as we know 

 full well. But in sandy soils they may well be used till clover comes in, and 

 later on the ripening cow peas will be the place for the pigs. Sweet potatoes 

 are sometimes fed to pigs in the South in this way, but in these days of quick 

 transportation this crop has too great a value as a market crop to make the 

 feeding profitable, except in the more remote neighborhoods. In more north- 

 ern sections we would assume that the Canada field pea would be a valuable 

 hog feeding crop till clover comes on. Where red clover flourishes, a special 

 piece should be provided for the pigs so that they can live "like pigs in clover." 



FORAGE PLANTS NOT LEGUMINOUS. 

 MILLETS. 



While the millets belong rather to the botanical genus Panicum, the 

 name has been applied to a number of plants of different genera. While most 

 of the millets cultivated in this country belong to the Panicum genus, others 

 belong to Setaria, or, as they now-a-days want us to call them, in the rage 

 for changing botanical names, Chaetochloa. Only those who spend their 

 whole time and energy in the upsetting of our old botanical nomenclature 

 can give any reason for the change. The farmer can, however, continue to 

 know these by the name of the Foxtail millets. 



Millets are not a crop that will be profitable to take into a regular rota- 

 tion, but there are times when they can be used as a catch crop, to fill out a 

 gap in the forage supply, though in our opinion such conditions will be rare ; 

 for at the time the millets should be sown the cow pea can as well be used 

 for the catch crop, and the resulting forage will be immensely superior to that 

 of any millet grown. Millets require the richest of soil to make a good crop, 

 while the pea will thrive on soil of moderate fertility, and help the soil while 

 it makes forage. Millet hay is at best a poor hay. It is also a dangerous 

 hay for horses if the seeds are allowed to mature in the heads. If you have 



