FODDER CROPS. 23 



feeding in August and until rye is ready. It is difficult to eradi- 

 cate from the soil when it once becomes a weed and has been 

 allowed to take possession. But a careful farmer will have no 

 trouble if he manages the crop so as to prevent the seed being 

 shed. When sown in August, mustard affords valuable feed dur- 

 ing the winter, and although the ground may be covered with 

 several inches of snow, the sheep will scrape off the covering and 

 get at it. In this way a plot of mustard may furnish a green bite 

 all the winter where the snow fall is light. In the spring it should 

 be plowed down early and not allowed to blossom, and a spring 

 crop taken so that the ground is plowed again in the fall. Treated 

 thus, the plant cannot ripen and shed its seeds and become trouble- 

 some. Mustard has a pungent flavor, and contains a large propor- 

 tion of sulphur ; it is on this account a healthful fodder for sheep, 

 and is very much relished by them. It belongs to the botanical 

 order of Cruciferce.to which the cabbage, rape, and turnip, belong; 

 a family of plants rich in sulphur, lime, phosphoric acid, and other 

 mineral matter demanded for the sustenance of sheep. Two pecks 

 of mustard seed per acre are sown, and for a heavy crop of fodder 

 rich soil is required. 



Rape, a variety of Brassica campestris, is a very hardy plant, and 

 produces a heavy burden of fodder which is readily eaten by sheep. 

 It is very similar in habit to mustard, and should be fed off in the 

 fall and winter or early in spring. Two pecks of seed are required 

 for an acre. For fall feed it should be sown in July or early in 

 August. Both mustard and rape succeed very well in the north- 

 ern, western, and middle states, and would thrive equally well in 

 most of the southern states if sown somewhat later and fed off 

 during the winter. These plants when sown late ripen their seed 

 early in the second year. 



Turnips are a very frequent fodder crop in those parts of Eng- 

 land where sheep are largely raised, but the practice of allowing 

 them to be fed off from the ground is fast becoming obsolete, and 

 the plan of taking up the crop and cutting and feeding the roots 

 in troughs upon the fields or in yards is substituted in its place. 

 But the English climate is excessively moist, and rain falls two 

 days out of three on the average. It is for this reason, and the in- 

 jurious effect upon the sheep of the exposure upon muddy fields 

 to cold wintry rains, that the practice is falling into disuse. In 

 parts of the United States we have every advantage for making 

 use of so cheap and convenient a plan of feeding sheep upon 

 these root crops that are not injured by moderate frosts. Where 

 the fall of snow is light and soon melts away, as in Virginia, Ten- 



