GROWING CROPS FOR SUCCULENCE 67 



should be seeded in August or September in the 

 North and in September or October in the South. 

 When thus planted it is ready early in the spring, 

 long before ordinary pastures are available or be- 

 fore clover or wheat can be used. 



Alfalfa Ranks Best. — I like alfalfa as a soiling 

 crop; in fact, it is by all odds the best. If you 

 have learned the secret of growing alfalfa you have 

 a treasure indeed, so valuable as to be almost im- 

 possible of estimation. If alfalfa has not blest you 

 as yet, then oats and peas, to be followed by cow- 

 peas, sorghum, corn and other green crops, should 

 be accorded places in the list. The oats and peas 

 should go in early; cover the peas 3 or 4 inches 

 deep, one bushel to the acre; the oats a less depth 

 and about 2 bushels to the acre. Inasmuch as 

 oats fancy the cool seasons rather than the warm 

 weather, the earlier they are seeded in the spring 

 the better. Field peas also withstand a surpris- 

 ingly large amount of cold w^eather. Cowpeas and 

 sorghum are warm weather crops and should go in 

 after corn; any time, say, between May 25 and 

 July I. 



Green Corn for Summer. — I am a great believer 

 in corn for all farm purposes and depend upon it 

 constantly as a soiling crop for July and August — 

 the dry seasons — even when not particularly in- 

 terested in milk. I find it is always advisable to 

 have a couple or more acres of corn as a reserve 

 crop for late summer feeding. Every animal on 

 the farm relishes a few stalks of green corn at night 

 or morning when the pastures are dry and hot. 



Suppose you devote two or three acres particu- 

 larly adapted to early corn planting just as early 

 as you can. The soil may be more sandy and 



