Green Forage Crops 279 



feeder, and if it is to be grown successfully for forage it 

 should be liberally fertilized. Twenty to 25 tons of 

 manure should be applied before plowing, 1500 pounds 

 of lime after plowing, and just previous to seeding 100 

 pounds of nitrate of soda, 700 of acid phosphate and 200 

 of muriate of potash to the acre. It is important that 

 these applications be uniformly made, and that the lime 

 should not be omitted, because it is a safeguard against 

 a disease known as club-root or finger-and-toe. 



Kohlrabi. 



Kohlrabi attains its best development when grown upon 

 rich soils, and proves a valuable forage crop, especially 

 because it may be fed at any period of growth without 

 risk. It may be grown upon any soils suitable to ruta- 

 bagas, and its culture and fertilization may be the same. 



ROOT CROPS 



These crops are, as a class, exhaustive of plant-food 

 elements, much more so, in proportion to the dry matter 

 contained in them, than the cereals or legumes. It 

 will require, for example, 20 tons of topped fodder-beets 

 or turnips to furnish as much total food as is contained 

 in 10 tons of corn forage or silage, as the former seldom 

 contain more than 10 per cent of dry matter, whereas the 

 latter frequently contain more than 20 per cent; yet on 

 the average, 20 tons of roots will contain 60 pounds of 

 nitrogen, equivalent to 400 pounds nitrate of soda, 35 

 of phosphoric acid, equivalent to 300 pounds of acid 

 phosphate, and 150 of potash, equivalent to 300 of muriate 

 of potash, which amounts are far in excess of those con- 

 tained in a corn crop, particularly of the minerals, phos- 



