1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



217 



And this year, with such a poor prospect for 

 hay, it h>oks as if it ■would be a good time to 

 give cornfodder both as a summer and win- 

 ter feed, a pretty extensive trial. 



Cultivation of Fodder Corn. 



If the ground is thoroughly tilled in the 

 spring, the cost of planting and hoeing need 

 not be very great. The first plantings may 

 need hand hoeing, but the later plantings will 

 hardly be benefited by it if the horse hoe or 

 cultivator is judiciously used. 



I use a Holbrook's Horse Hoe middle tooth 

 to open the rows and after sowing the corn by 

 hand, cover it with the outside teeth of the 

 horse hoe, with the wings set so as to throw 

 just dirt enough over the corn to cover it all, 

 or I go across the furrow with a light bush, 

 which will do the work just as well. In large 

 fields the bush is best ; in small lots the horse 

 hoe works better. As soon as the corn is 

 up, it should be worked out with a horse hoe 

 or suitable cultivator and the land made light 

 and the weeds killed between the rows. This 

 should be repeated every week till the corn 

 is too large to cultivate, after which it will 

 take care of itself and the weeds too. Last 

 year Mr. Jillson weighed several loads of his 

 corn and found that on one field of five acres 

 he was getting on the heaviest part of it about 

 forty tons per acre, and judges it will shrink 

 from 75 to 80 per cent, by being stocked for 

 winter use, which allows from eight to ten 

 tons per acre of dry fodder. It never gets 

 as dry or light as hay that is cured in summer. 

 The stalks contain some juice and the cattle 

 probably like it better than if it were made 

 entirely dry and crisp. 



Orchard Grass. 



My late recommendation of orchard grass 

 brings many inquiries from readers of the 

 Farmer. One gentleman from New Hamp- 

 shire asks if it will make a crop to cut the 

 coming haying season, if sown this spring ? 

 He says he has a five acre lot that was in corn 

 last year, which he had intended to sow to 

 oats for winter fodder, for cows, but thinks 

 he might sow orchard grass instead, if he can 

 get a crop this year ; say^s a part of the land 

 will not be fit to plough before the last of April, 

 and asks if that will be early enough for the 

 grass seed. 



Season and Method of Seeding. 



The belief seems to be very common among 

 farmers that grass seed sowed in the spring 

 will not produce a crop of hay the first year. 

 The usual practice is to sow some kind of 

 grain with the grass seed. The grain comes 

 up first, grows faster and taller than the grass, 

 and gives it little chance to show what it might 

 do if sowed alone. 



Carrots, beets and parsnips would hardly 

 make a crop the first season, if treated in the 

 same way grass is treated when sown with 

 stronger growing plants, like oats, barley or 



wheat, or if allowed to be overrun with coarse, 

 rank weeds. 



I have known a few farmers to try grass in 

 the spring without a grain crop who have 

 failed, because their land was so foul with 

 weeds. They said they would never try it 

 again, because if they did not sow grain they 

 would only get a crop of weeds. Some 

 very good farmers never sow grass seed in the 

 spring, but take olF a crop of oats or barjey 

 and then plough and seed with grass alone. 

 In this way they get one good crop in the sea- 

 son, and the grass is not apt to be injured very 

 much b}^ weeds, when sowed in the fall. The 

 objection to this practice is the extra labor of 

 ploughing, harrowing, bushing, picking stones 

 and rolling the land twice a year instead of 

 once. However, this is better than to sow 

 grain and grass seed together and lose the 

 grass seed. The loss of grass seed sown last 

 spring throughout the United States was im- 

 mense and will be felt by all classes for sev- 

 eral years. All kinds of grass seed are very 

 high this spring, and every precaution should 

 be used not to have it lost or wasted by wrong 

 management. 



Seeding without Grain. 



It was the high price of spring grain a few 

 years ago that induced me to sow grass alone 

 on a part of a field, instead of mixing it with 

 oats. The results were so satisfactory that I 

 have seldom put in any grain with grass seed 

 since. And whenever I have done so I have 

 been more and more convinced that the prac- 

 tice is a bad one on my farm. 



With me the grass crop is of the first 

 importance. Some farmers plough up their 

 land in order to raise corn or potatoes or some 

 other hoed crop. Then they seed it down for 

 a crop of oats or barley ; and if the hoed 

 crops, and the grain leave any strength in 

 the land, they get a few crops of grass. 



With me grass is of such importance that I 

 cannot afford to raise any grain, but plough 

 and work a field for the one purpose of mak- 

 ing it bear more hay. If I plant corn, it is 

 for the fodder ; and I grow as much fodder to 

 the acre as possible. If 1 sow oats, they are 

 cut green, and if I sow grass, I give it the 

 whole land. 



From many experiments I am led to believe 

 the early fall is the best and most natural sea- 

 son for sowing all the grasses excepting per- 

 haps clover, and I have been very successful 

 with that when sowed as early as August. If 

 it cannot be put in till later than that time I 

 would defer till spring. 



An old Bog Meadow. 

 I have a field of three acres now up, that 

 was in mowing last year, cutting two very 

 fair crops. It was ploughed last fall with a 

 jwivel plough, all tui-ned one way and all well 

 turned over from seven to eight inches deep. 

 It was then thoroughly worked down with a 

 Shares harrow, at least four times over, and 



