AND OTHER FORAGE PLANTS. 127 



corticated, they are still better for all animals. The cake after 

 expressing the oil is not surpassed as a feed for sheep, hogs, cat- 

 tle, horses and mules, by any thing else. Being concentrated 

 food it must be fed with discretion and mixed with abundance 

 of coarser foods as grasses, hays and matters containing little 

 nutrition. It is far more valuable than Indian corn. 



CHAPTER XI. 

 Flatting. 



It had long been believed both North and South that the "ar- 

 tificial" or cultivated grasses and clovers could not be induced 

 to grow here. There never was a greater mistake; for most of 

 them grow spontaneously in the South where partially protect- 

 ed, and some of them without any protection against stock. It 

 has been to the interest of western farmers to teach that 

 the grasses could not be grown here. The' ill success of many 

 southern planters in their feeble attempts to grow them confirm- 

 ed the opinion. Now, many of these men did not deserve suc- 

 cess. The plow is started and the sod set up edgewise like the 

 folds of a palm leaf. The seeds (very small, some of them al- 

 most microscopic), are sown .and a harrow run over the ground. 

 Most of the seed are covered too deep to ever germinate. The 

 few that sprout, find it difficult to live among the clods and fi- 

 nally die out ; smothered by weeds on the richer spots and 

 starved on the poorer. 



PREPARATION OF THE LAND. 



No one should plant grasses and clovers, unless he determines 

 to do it right. The ground must be plowed and harrowed, and 

 the process repeated as many times as may be necessary to put 

 the surface and sub-soil in proper condition. The subsoil should 

 be broken and loosened ; the deeper the better, but not turned 

 up, The surface of the ground should be finely comminuted 

 and smoothed. If too light, the roller should be used for com- 

 pacting. When the ground is properly prepared, it should be 

 very lightly marked off in lands of such width as may be con- 

 venient to sow. For an acre so laid off, take the proper quanti- 

 ty of seed, divide into as many parcels as lands : then sub-di- 

 vide each parcel into two equal parts. With one of the smaller 

 parcels, proceed from one end to the other of the land, sowing ; 

 then returning over the same land, SOAV the other half; and so 

 on throughout the entire field. Thus an equal distribution of 

 seed may be effected and an even stand of plants obtained. 



