114 One Thousand Questions in Agriculture 



although it would be inferior as containing less nutritive and more 

 non-nutritive matter. Such hay would seem to be most serviceable 

 as roughage for cows or steers in connection with alfalfa hay or some 

 other feed which would supply this deficiency. 



Forage Plants in the Foothills. 



IVe have 3,000 acres of foothill land and hope to be able to irrigate 

 some land this spring and wish to knoiv the best forage crops, for sheep 

 and hogs, especially. Kafir corn, stock peas, rape, sugar-beets and arti- 

 chokes are the varieties about which we desire information. 



Where you have irrigation water available in the foothills you 

 can get a very satisfactory growth of red clover. We have seen it 

 doing very well on sloping land in your county where water was 

 allowed to spill over from a ditch on the ridge to moisten the slope 

 below. Winter rye and other hardy stock feeds could also be grown 

 in the winter time on the protected slopes with the rainfall. Some 

 such plants are not good summer growers, owing to the drought. 

 Rape is a good winter grower by rainfall, but not so satisfactory as 

 vetches and kale. Sugar beets are not so good for stock purposes as 

 stock beets, which give you much more growth for the same labor 

 and are more easily gathered because they grow a good part out of 

 the ground. They will stand considerable freezing and may be 

 sown at different times throughout the year, whenever the land is 

 moist, either by irrigation or rainfall. Artichokes are of doubtful 

 value. We have never found anyone who continued to grow them 

 long. Of course, on good, deep land, with irrigation, nothing can 

 be better than alfalfa as supplementary to hill range during the 

 summer season. 



Winter Forage. 



At what time of the year should I plant kale, Szviss chard, etc., so 

 as to have them ready for use during the months from February to Junef 



You should plant Swiss chard, kale, etc., as soon as the ground 

 is sufficiently moist from the rain in the fall. In fact, it would be 

 desirable for you to plant the seed earlier in boxes and thus secure 

 plants for planting out when the ground is sufficiently moist. These 

 plants are quite hardy against frost, and in order to have them 

 available by February, a start in the autumn is essential. 



A Summer Hay Crop. 



What can I put on the land after the oat crop is taken off to furnish 

 hay for horses during the coming winter? I had thought millet zvould 

 be good. I have water for irrigation. 



You could get most out of the land you mention during the hot 

 season bv growing Kafir corn or milo, cutting for hay before the 

 plant gets too far advanced. If your land can be flooded and takes 

 water well, so that you can wet it deeply before plowing, the sorghum 

 seed can be broadcast and the crop cut with the mower while the 



