Sowing Corn for Foddkr. — In answer to an inquiry the Coiintry Gentleman says : 



AVe bave cultivated corn for fodder for many years, and find it, all things considered, the most 

 profitable crop we can raise. It may be sown during the comparative season of leisure just after 

 corn-planting, and secured at the next season of leisure just after haying and harvesting. After 

 repeatedly cropping the same ground, we are satisfied that it rather enriches than impoverishes the 

 laui], no grain being formed, and a vast bed of roots remaining. Nothing is equal to it for reducing 

 rough, turfy, weedy land, to a state of cleanliness and good tilth. We believe it the best fallow 

 crop in the world, to precede wheat. 



It should never be sown broadcast. The imperfections of this mode are the chief reasons that the 

 crop has not become more generally introduced. It requires more seed, and leaves the ground in a 

 fouler condition than when sown in plowed drills. ■ We have tried both ways to our entire satisfac- 

 tion as to the comparative value of each. Tlie following is the best mode for sowing, cultivating, 

 and securing the crop: 



Plow and harrow the ground as for any other crop ; furrow it with a onediorse plow, three feet 

 apart ; let a man pass along one of these drills with a half-bushel basket on his left arm containing 

 shelled corn, and strew the seed in the furrow at the rate of about 40 or 50 grains to a foot, which 

 will be about 2^ oi 8 bushels ])er acre. lie will do this evenly, witli a little practice, as fast as he 

 can walk. If sowed thiner, the crop will be smaller. We have found hy accurately weighing and 

 measuring, that 20 grains to the foot yielded only two-thirds the crop afforded by 40 grains to the 

 foot. Immediately after the sower, follows a man with a one-horse harrow or cultivator, or with 

 a two-horse harrow, lengthwise with the furrow, and covers the seed. Two men will thus plant six 

 or seven acres in a day. 



When the corn is six inches to a foot high, run a one horse-cultivator between the rows. This is all 

 the dressing tlie crop needs. No hoeing is necessary, for the dense growth soon smothers down all 

 else ; and in the autumn, when the crop is cut off, the earth is left as clean as a newly plowed field. 



It is to be harvested about the first of autumn. If the crop is very heavy or much "lodged," it 

 is cut by reaping. If straight and even, a common scythe will answer the purpose, a little practice 

 enabling the operator to throw it smoothly with the heads in one direction. After partly drying, 

 for a day or two, the best way is to tie it in bundles and put it up in large shocks, although raking 

 by a horse into winrows for cocks, might answer well for large fields. It must dry some weeks. 

 It can never be safely put into large stacks. The most perfect way would be to place it in small 

 stacks or long upright row.s, under a large shed. Even if the stalks aj^pear perfectly cured after 

 several weeks exposure, tliey will certainly heat and spoil if stacked in the ordinary wa}'. Hence, 

 the stacks must be quite small, freely salted, and well ventilated by means of them or four poles 

 placed upright in the center. AVe have found the stalk to retain a good condition when left in 

 Ja!-ge, well made shocks on the field, till wanted in winter. Curing is the only ditficulty with this 

 crop, and this ceases when understood. , 



Land th-at will yield thirty bushels of corn to the acre, will afi'ord nhowt five tons of dried fodder. 

 Moist land is better than very dry, as it is more affected by drouth than ordinary corn crops. We 

 have not found the cost, including interest on the land, to exceed ^1,50 per ton for the dried fodder. 



For soiling, or feeding green, corn fodder often proves of the highest value, when pastures are 

 burnt by drouth. For this purpose, it may be sown at ditlercnt periods till mid-summer. 



M^' 



Fall Plowing. — I have been a practical farmer for some time, and a constant reader of agricul' 

 tural works, and yet can I never adopt tlie popular ]>lan of plowing my corn ground in the fall' 

 I have frequently conversed with the advocates of fall plowing, and the princii>al reasons urged 

 are: a preventive against the cut-worm, advance with their spring work, and that their teams are 

 in a better condition to do work in the fall tlian in the spring. The first of these reasons may, in 

 a measure, be an inducement to some for fall plowing ; but to me it is not, for I never have had much 

 trouble with the grub. My mode of management is, to plant deeji with the hoe, and not too early 

 in the season. Tlic advantage I find in jdanting deep is, that if the worm cut off the stalk, it still 

 grows on without injury, and if planted shallow,' the worm takes it so close to the grain that 

 it must die. As to t!ie the two other reasons, I think they sliould have little weight, for in 

 my opinion, teams well wintered, are better able to perform hard wai'k in the spring than they are 

 in the fall, after a wliole summer's hard work. 



My own experience, too, has taught me that ground plowed in the fall, and subjected to the action 

 of the frosts, lu^avy rains and snows of our wintc>r, will bepome hard and unmanageable the following 

 spring, and then will require as much labor to get it ]U'o|)erly pulveri/.fd as another plowing; and 

 tlien my imjiression is, it will not retain moisture as well as spring plowing. Another reason for 

 spring plowing is, that it can be better done than in the fall, the ground being always in better 

 order for plowing. I have seen plowing done in the fall that I would not have thanked a man to 

 have done for nothing, on my farm, in consequence of the ground bein too hard. 



To prove my jiosition, I hnd, in referring to agricultural worlds, that where there has been an 

 extraordinary yield, it always has been the product of spring j)luwing. In looking over the Feb- 

 ruary number of the Farm Journal I find, for raising the premium crop of IGQ bushels per acre, 

 Mr. Walker plowed in the beginning of May, and planted the last of May.' In the same number 



