204 FORAGE CROPS. 



the seed is sown broadcast. It may, therefore, with 

 much propriety come after a succession of grain 

 crops when the land has become weedy through 

 growing these crops upon it thus, as it assuredly 

 will become in time. Turnips will grow nicely in 

 overturned sod lands when the sod is not too fresh 

 and dense, but such lands are usually wanted for 

 cereals because of their clean condition. A grain 

 crop should follow the rutabaga crop, and because 

 of the clean condition of the land, it would be well 

 to sow grass seeds or clover seeds, or both, with 

 the grain. 



Soil. — Rutabagas are partial to a deep, moist 

 loam soil, with enough of sand in it to keep it friable. 

 Clay lands, light sands and muck soils are ill-adapted 

 to growing rutabagas. In the first, they start shyly 

 and grow slowly, and the soil is also hard to till. In 

 the second, there is not enough food or moisture to 

 sustain a good growth, unless much fertilizer with 

 the proper elements in it should first be applied, and 

 in the third, the rutabagas make too much growth 

 of neck and top and too little growth of bulb-like 

 root. In some instances, but not always, gravelly 

 soils grow good crops. The gray deposit soils of 

 the higher Rocky mountain valleys also produce 

 good crops of rutabagas. 



Preparing the Soil. — The same preparation of 

 soil is wanted for a crop of rutabagas to be grown 

 for forage as for a crop to be stored for winter feed- 

 ing. Ordinarily the ground should be plowed 

 deeply and in the autumn. On retentive soils the 

 farmyard manure should then be applied and also 

 plowed under. But in leechy soils the results will 

 be more satisfactory if the manure can be spread on 



