SOILING CROPS AND THE SILO. 



be the aim of the grower to prepare a seed bed clean, 

 moist, fine and smooth. The clean seed bed can only 

 be reached by the frequent use of the harrow for some 

 time previous to the sowing of the seed. But when 

 millet is grown as a catch crop the season for prepar- 

 ing the seed bed is usually too short to admit of thus 

 cleaning the land. The means used to secure a clean 

 seed bed will also tend to conserve moisture in the 

 same, and the judicious use of the roller will also 

 tend to secure the same end. 



In cloddy soils, a fine seed bed can only be 

 secured by the judicious use of some form of clod 

 crusher or harrow and roller. In a dry time it would 

 be labor lost to sow millet in cloddy soil. A level 

 seed bed is secured by careful plowing and by supple- 

 menting such plowing with drawing some form of 

 leveler over the soil. When any considerable period 

 elapses between the plowing of the land and the sow- 

 ing of the seed, the land may be fitted as desired, but 

 it more often happens that the seed must be sown so 

 soon after the plowing of the land that it hinders the 

 fitting of the same in the very best form. 



It is not usual to apply fertilizers directly in 

 sowing a millet crop, more especially in the north 

 and west. In the north, fertilizers are applied to 

 crops that are considered more important. In the 

 west they are not much needed. But on ordinary 

 soils the yield from this crop will be greatly increased 

 by the judicious use of fertilizers. When they are 

 used it should be in the readily available form, owing 

 to the shortness of the season in which millet makes 

 its growth. If farmyard manure is applied it ought 

 to be in the reduced form and incorporated as much 



