INDIAN CORN OR MAIZE. 23 



propriety be sown after soiling corn include winter 

 ( wheat, winter rye, winter oats, the winter vetch, the 

 'sand vetch, rape and crimson clover. Corn may 

 thus frequently be sown as soiling food without 

 interfering with the growth of the crop that would 

 ordinarily be taken from the land. 



Preparing the Soil. When preparing the soil, 

 the aim should be to secure a seed bed moist, clean 

 and fine. When winter rye is plowed under, it 

 should not be later than the earing stage, and in 

 regions deficient in moisture earlier than that, lest 

 through its bulkiness it should cause the land to lie 

 too loosely upon itself and so lose too much of its 

 moisture, or through its woodiness it should fail to 

 decay soon enough to feed the corn crop. If the 

 buried rye is rolled and harrowed soon after it has 

 been buried, the moisture in the soil will be better 

 conserved and the more quickly will the rye decay. 

 These remarks will apply equally to the burial of 

 fresh farmyard manure with much litter in it. But 

 in time of wet weather, it would not be necessary 

 thus to roll and harrow the land so soon after it 

 had been plowed. As the preparation of the soil for 

 this crop cannot usually begin long before the plant- 

 ing of the crop, special pains should be taken to 

 pulverize the soil and to make it firm, that the germi- 

 nation of the young plants may begin at once after 

 planting, and that the subsequent growth may be 

 rapid. 



It should always be the aim in growing a soiling 

 crop of corn to produce a large quantity. It is usu- 

 ally fed in the immature form, hence quality in the 

 food cannot be so much influenced by close or wide 



