CATTLE SOILING AND ENSILAGE. 819 



can be fed in connection with rye it makes an excellent ration, 

 as one supplements the other. 



Red clover alone, or mixed with orchard grass, will succeed 

 rye, and of these crops you should provide one square rod per 

 day for each full-grown animal. The amount of land required 

 will vary with its quality. 



Oats will be ready to feed before the clover has become too 

 ripe, and it is well to give two or more kinds of food at the 

 same time when the maturing of the crops will allow it. It 

 will pay to begin feeding the oats before the heads show, as 

 when cut this early they will give a good second crop. Three 

 bushels of seed to the acre is recommended to be sown for 

 soiling. 



Perhaps no crop grown on the farm responds so generously 

 to fine tilth and thorough preparation of the soil as oats, and 

 the crop will not only be much heavier, but also several days 

 earlier if great pains is taken. In the more northern latitudes 

 peas may be sown with the oats, and will furnish a large amount 

 of excellent food. It may be cut from the time the peas are 

 in bloom till they are grown to full size in the pod. 



Before the crops named are exhausted, timothy will be ready 

 to cut. For soiling I would always sow with it the large clover 

 or the alsike, as both of these clovers bloom late, and continue 

 in bloom for some weeks, and the food will be better and more 

 abundant from the mixture than from either alone. 



This will bring us to the great staple crop for green feeding, 

 fodder-corn. No other crop will furnish so great an amount of 

 food, half a square rod on good land producing enough to feed 

 a cow a day. Our Western field varieties will produce the 

 heaviest crop, but Stowell Evergreen is of better quality, and 

 as it will form ears when quite thickly planted, and remain for 

 a long time in a succulent state, I think it the best variety for 

 this purpose. I do not recommend broad-casting or very thick 

 drilling, but would make the rows three and a half feet wide, 

 and would give thorough cultivation. I believe two or three 

 stalks to the foot will give the best results. 



To give variety, millet and hungarian grass and sorghum 



