154 THE DOMESTIC SHEEP 



the rape did practically no good, but where the soil was 

 rich I never saw anything grow faster or more luxuriant. It 

 was an experiment with me, as I had never seen any of it 

 before, but I am satisfied that rape is a success in Southwest 

 Missouri. Shall sow a twelve-acre cornfield with it next 

 mouth for fall pasture." 



The other is from Ohio, and runs as follows: 

 "I sowed 22 acres of corn w r ith rape sown ahead of the cul- 

 tivators at last cultivating, July 15th, and made an immense 

 lot of feed. Turned the lambs in the cornfield the latter 

 part of August, and kept them there most of the time until 

 after the corn was husked. I next turned in 52 ewes and 12 

 head of cattle until January 10th. Fed little else excepting 

 a light hay feed occasionally when the weather was too 

 rough to turn stock in the field. A year ago 1 advocated, in 

 the Sheep Breeder, one pound of seed to the acre for the 

 corn field. My second year's experience justifies my early 

 judgment. The thorough cultivation of the corn kills the 

 weeds and leaves the rape an uninterrupted growth in the 

 protecting shade of the corn where it makes a luxuriant 

 and bushy growth, much better indeed than when sown alone 

 in the open field. I think this the cheapest way to secure 

 a great lot of very valuable feed in the corn belt states. The 

 22 acres gave me 2,110 bushels of corn in the ear and from 

 150 to 200 tons of rape, the corn not in the least affected 

 by its companion crop of rape." 



The latter is interesting as showing the value of this 

 crop grown in the way described, as a catch crop, as it is 

 termed, that is, one pushed in, as it were, between two 

 other crops, thus filling a space that would otherwise be un- 

 occupied, and not only providing, as is told in this plain 

 story, a valuable lot of feed, but of occupying land that 

 would otherwise have beeii idle and growing useless weeds. 

 One of the most important lessons a farmer can learn and 

 apply to his practice, is, that land should never be idle, but 

 always growing something of value for feeding to some kind 

 of stock, to make profit; and thus exemplifying the adage 

 taken for the motto of thisi work; and as well to show 

 how easily this double profit may be made, and to prove 

 another old saying (of Cicero), to the effect that "feeding 

 animals is the most important part of agriculture," and we 



