342 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



able to store it properly for winter use. It may now be made dry 

 enough to be put up in small stacks, (butts outward,) but this is far 

 less satisfactory than it would be to store it securely in a tight 

 barn or a well-thatched, large stack. 



The main crop should be planted at the usual time of planting 

 corn for grain, but, so far as it is desired to secure a succession of 

 fodder during the pasturing season, it may be advisable to plant at 

 intervals until the middle of July. 



When no suitable implement is available, the planting may be 

 rapidly done by hand, but I have found a grain drill, with all but 

 the middle one and outer two teeth removed, (the hopper being 

 arranged to deliver only to these teeth,) a perfect tool for the pur- 

 pose, planting three rows at a time as fast as a team can walk, and 

 planting them very evenly. After planting, it is well to pass over 

 the ground with a heavy roller, and as soon as the rows can be 

 distinguished the cultivator should be set at work, — keeping the 

 ground always loose and light, until the corn is so thick that a 

 horse cannot pass through it without material injury. 



Sorghum (or Chinese sugar-cane) is very similar to Indian 

 corn, and, as it contains more saccharine matter, it may be, in 

 those parts of the country in which it thrives, even better as a green 

 fodder ; but, as I have had no experience with its growth for this 

 purpose, I cannot speak positively about it. 



From the greater amount of sugar it contains, it would probably 

 be more likely to sour in curing. 



Clover. — After Indian corn, there is no forage crop to com- 

 pare with red clover, and if we take into account its effect on the 

 land, it should be placed at the very head of the list, for, while 

 Indian corn requires rich land and ample manuring, clover is the 

 most fertilizing crop that is grown, and may justly be called the 

 poor man's manure. 



We constantly meet in agricultural writings the statement that 

 clover benefits the land because it derives most of its constituents 

 from the atmosphere. This is an absurd reason, because every 



