22 SOILING CROPS AND THE SILO. 



strongly impregnated with alkali, and not overmoist 

 or overdry. It may be made to flourish on the stiffest 

 clays when they are sufficiently pulverized, and on 

 the poorest sands when they have been sufficiently 

 enriched. 



Place in the Rotation. As a fodder or grain 

 crop, that is, as a crop for being fed in the cured 

 form, corn should be grown whenever practicable 

 as a cleaning crop. More commonly it should be 

 planted after one or more grain crops have been 

 taken from the land, and it should be followed by a 

 grain crop in which grass seeds have been sown. 

 Frequently it should be sown on an overturned grass 

 or clover sod. But when sown to provide soiling 

 food it can with much advantage be grown as a 

 "catch" crop, that is to say, as a crop preceded or 

 followed by another crop grown on the land the same 

 season, and in some instances both preceded and 

 followed by another crop. Where the seasons are 

 sufficiently long it may thus be grown with peculiar 

 fitness after a crop of winter rye is pastured, plowed 

 under green, or reaped when mature ; after clover is 

 pastured, buried or reaped ; after grain crops are pas- 

 tured off, and in some instances after grain crops 

 are harvested; after a crop of early sown rape is 

 grazed down, and after certain other soiling crops 

 have been removed from the land, as, for instance, 

 peas and oats. 



It may also be grown after any kind of a fall 

 or spring sown crop that has failed from any cause. 

 But in areas in which the seasons are quite short, it 

 may not be possible to grow another crop on the land 

 the same season. The crops that may with much 



