228 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



safe to estimate over 10 tons for a carefully-raised crop in 

 filling silo. A good crop of clover, as we have before 

 stated, should reach 10 to 12 tons green, and in favorable 

 seasons, the two subsequent cuttings should reach 8 to 10 

 tons more. But it must be remembered that this means a 

 thick stand of full-height clover. 



MILLET, on land suited to it, should reach 10 or more 

 tons per acre, at blossoming. 



PEASE and OATS, in blossom, reach about the same fig- 

 ure as millet. But pease may properly be left, in cutting 

 for ensilage, till the berry, in the earliest pods, is in the 

 dough state. Some part of the head of the oats will also 

 have formed the seed, at this point. But the crop must not 

 be left any longer, for it will deteriorate for ensilage rap- 

 idly beyond this point, and if there is any probability of 

 being delayed the crop had better be cut when the pea is 

 in blossom. 



TIMOTHY and LATE CLOVER, when in perfection, will 

 make a most valuable ensilage crop both on account of 

 the large amount of nutriment on an acre, and because it 

 comes at a favorable time for laying in a supply of green 

 food for feeding on short pasture. On land adapted to 

 timothy it often stands five feet high and so thick as to 

 yield 24,000 to 28,000 pounds on an acre as a single crop. 

 The Woburn experiments report a crop of timothy, cut in 

 blossom, that yielded 40,000 pounds on an acre. This is 

 the largest crop ever reported. Professor Way found 

 timothy the most nutritive of all the grasses he subjected 

 to analysis. The danger with timothy is in cutting it too 

 early or too late. The bulb on the lower joint requires to 

 mature before cutting or the root is likely to die. The 

 most appropriate time for cutting timothy is when the first 

 dry spot appears above the lower joint. This indicates the 

 maturity of the bulb, and it occurs while in blossom 



