198 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Hungarian and Millet. — There are several varieties of 

 Hungarian grass and millet which are quite valuable for 

 forage. The Hungarian and one or two of the smaller 

 millets are most commonly grown for hay. One great ad- 

 vantage in these crops is the fact that they can be sown as 

 late as the middle of June, or late enough so that the pros- 

 pects for a poor or a good hay crop can be safely estimated. 

 The millets are rapidly growing crops, and should always 

 be supplied with plenty of available plant food, and espe- 

 cially with an abundance of nitrogen. They will often make 

 their growth in from nine to ten weeks, and should always 

 be cut early, to prevent their becoming tough and woody. 



Soja Beans. — The soja bean is a leguminous plant, 

 worthy of our consideration either for use as a forage crop 

 or for the production of seed. It is well suited to all of 

 the southern half of New England, and will produce from 

 10 to 12 tons of valuable fodder per acre. Like all of the 

 legumes, it is rich in protein. The seed is especially rich 

 in this nutrient, containing nearly as high a percentage as 

 cotton-seed meal. Experiments made at the Hatch and the 

 Kansas stations tend to show that the seed has a high feed- 

 ing value for dairy stock, and that it produces no injury to 

 milk or butter. The crop may be harvested before the 

 seeds are fully matured, and fed as a soiling crop, or it may 

 be mixed with corn and put into the silo. Better results 

 have generally been obtained by mixing the highly nitrog- 

 enous leguminous crops, such as the soja bean or the 

 clover, with corn when filling the silo, than by ensilaging 

 them alone. The leguminous fodders, when preserved in 

 the silo, seem to produce a different kind of fermentation 

 from the more starchy materials, such as corn or other 

 cereals. The silage often has a strong, disagreeable odor, 

 which sometimes affects the quality of the products. Where 

 the soja beans or clover have been mixed with corn at the 

 rate of two parts of corn to one part of the other crop, no 

 injurious effects have been observed. If the soja beans are 

 planted about the last week in May, the crop will be in the 

 right condition for harvesting with the corn early in Sep- 

 tember. One condition, however, must be provided if good 

 crops are to be expected. The bacteria which aid the plant 



