CROPS FOR SOILING AND FODDER Cow PEA AND MILLET. 95 



Q. Have you ever attempted the culture of the Southern Cow Pea? 



A. I planted twelve bushels one season that were sent me by a 

 friend in Charleston. From the way it had been spoken of in the 

 agricultural journals I expected to have a good soiling crop from it, 

 but when I came to feed it to my cows they snuffed and tossed it 

 around, but would not eat it. When I found they would not touch 

 it I plowed it under as a manure crop. I well knew the estimation 

 in which it is held at the South and for that reason was all the more 

 disappointed. Whatever the cause, it is certain that my cattle 

 refused to eat it, and it may be that the Southern cattle not having 

 so much choice of food have become accustomed to it, but, as far as 

 my observation has gone, the appearance of the cattle in the South 

 is not such as to show that this is a good fodder plant, as they bear 

 no comparison with our Northern stock ; and I would advise our 

 Southern friends to compare, under fair tests, our forage of peas and 

 oats with this Southern Cow Pea. But, as has been before stated, 

 lucern is the best of all fodder crops for the soul 

 country. 



'[UNIVERSITY' 



MILLET. Vv > 



Q. Have you made any trials of any of the millets 

 A. I have used the German millet and do not like it very well. It 

 is coarse and the seed is too hard to digest. I have grown a grsat deal 

 of Hungarian millet, or " grass," as it is commonly called. It makes 

 very good winter food when cut before the seed ripens. If cut when 

 in bloom before it goes to seed Hungarian grass is an excellent crop. 

 It, too, may be called a " stolen " crop, as it can be sown and cut in 

 condition for hay six weeks after sowing, and may be sown after the 

 hay or oat crop has been taken off, which is far better than to let the 

 land go to weeds. No good farmer should suffer his land to grow 

 weeds. For one reason, because of leaving it too long and stocking 

 the soil with the seeds ; for another, that he may grow a useful crop 

 like this, or some other, just as well as a crop of weeds. I have 

 known as much as four tons of dry hay to be taken off per acre from 

 Hungarian grass, in six weeks from the time of sowing. No other 

 crop will stand the heat so well as this. It is just here that I may 

 raise my voice in warning against the common practice with farmers 

 of going over too much land. One hundred acres judiciously tilled 

 will bring a greater profit than 200 acres tilled in a slipshod way ; 

 for with this crop we are just speaking of, after a crop of oats, or 

 wheat, or rye, has been taken from the ground, there is yet plenty 

 of time. And it is just the time to plow and sow with it, because of 



