MISCELLANEOUS CROPS. 201 



value for all kinds of farm stock. Fattening hogs will eat a 

 good-sized pumpkin each per day and thrive better than if on 

 an exclusive corn diet, and either milch or fat cows thrive well 

 on them. Most horses will eat them readily, and are greatly 

 benefited by them. 



There is a popular idea that it is necessary to remove the 

 seed when fed to milch cows or the flow of milk will be 

 diminished. After careful experiment I conclude this is an 

 error. I have tried feeding both with and without the seeds, 

 and could see no difference, and I once had a cow eat a half 

 bushel of seeds which I had taken out and left in a tub, and 

 she gave for the next two milkings an unusually large mess, and 

 was not at all injured by the feed. I prefer to grow this crop 

 by itself rather than in the corn field. A profitable crop can 

 be grown bn quite poor land, if manured well in the hill. They 

 may also be grown after a crop of clover hay has been cut, 

 or as a second crop, following early potatoes. When they are 

 to be grown after early potatoes it is best to omit the planting 

 of every fourth hill in each third row of the potatoes, and then 

 about the middle of June plant these vacant hills with pumpkins. 

 The potatoes will be ready to dig by the time the vines need 

 the land. I prefer the Connecticut field or Yankee pumpkin for 

 stock, as they are softer fleshed and can be eaten readily 

 by cattle without chopping, while with the thick fleshed, solid 

 varieties, it is necessary to cut them. 



Flax. Flax is not ordinarily to be ranked among the 

 profitable crops of the farm. It is exhaustive, ranking in this 

 respect next to tobacco, and farmers who have had large experi- 

 ence with it say that it should not be sown on the same field 

 oftener than once in five years, and that eight is better. The 

 crop will rarely pay, unless the farmer is so situated as to have 

 a convenient market for the fiber, as well as the seed. The 

 average yield of seed per acre is probably below eight bushels, 

 and the land must be both rich and clean, and the seed-bed 

 thoroughly prepared if the crop exceeds twelve bushels. In 

 very rare cases fourteen to sixteen bushels have been grown. 

 The yield of fiber is from eight hundred to one thousand five 



