SOILING CHOPS. 191 



ten months, and the next cutting will usually furnish 

 abundant food for the rest of the year. 



ALSIKE CLOVER AND TIMOTHY. These may also be 

 grown together as a soiling crop. Alsike clover (Trifo- 

 lium Hybridum) is an extremely hardy forage plant, will 

 remain fixed in the soil and yield good crops for eight or 

 ten years. It branches very much, throws out many stalks 

 from one root, thus requiring only thin seeding ; the roots 

 strike very deep into the sub-soil. The period of bloom is 

 much longer than in red clover, and it is in good condition 

 to cut with timothy. By beginning to cut it when the first 

 blossoms appear, it remains in condition for soiling some 

 three or four weeks an important point in some seasons. 

 It may be doubtful if so large crops are raised of alsike as 

 of red clover, but the greater permanence of the root ren- 

 ders it an important plant for soiling. Some say it will 

 not yield a second crop, but as it bears cropping well in 

 pasture, and is deemed a valuable plant for pasturage, it is 

 not easy to see why, if cut early, it will not grow again 

 after cutting. But one large crop of alsike and timothy 

 will be quiu satisfactory, as it would feed twelve cattle for 

 one month per acre. Only one half the seed used for red 

 clover is required for alsike. It is sown with timothy 

 either spring or fall. 



For Southern soiling, Desmodium, Japan clover, Mexi- 

 can clover, Satin grass and Gama grass, mentioned on 

 pages 149-52, will be found profitable. These may all 

 grow large crops and will bear several cuttings. 



GREEN OATS. In regular order, oats will mature suf- 

 ficiently to cut after timothy. If the soil is rich and warm, 

 oats will come forward rapidly and make a good cutting in 

 the latter part of June. If oats are cut before the head is 

 formed, they will make a second growth, starting quickly 

 and growing more rapidly the second than the first time. In 

 this respect the oat plant is governed by the same rule as 



