THE COMMON CEREALS. l8l 



will justify such a course, and it should not be fed for 

 any considerable time after it has reached the earing 

 stage, unless it is to be run through a cutting box and 

 fed with other food, as "chaffed" hay. When thus 

 prepared, and meal is added to the mixture, it would 

 then be possible to feed green rye until the grain 

 began to form in the ear, and possibly for a longer 

 period. If fed alone after it has fully come out in 

 head, animals do not relish it sufficiently to make it a 

 desirable soiling food. Barley also should be fed at 

 a stage before the beards begin to stiffen. 



When food is grown in mixtures the grains 

 composing these will not always be possessed of 

 equal advancement, careful discrimination is neces- 

 sary on the part of the grower as to when the cutting 

 should begin. Usually when peas, or vetches in the 

 mixture have produced some blossoms and when 

 the heads of other kinds of grain are ready to leave 

 the leafy envelope which surrounds them, the cutting 

 of the crop may begin. At the stage indicated as 

 suitable to begin cutting these crops, they have not 

 reached that stage when they contain the highest 

 food value, but to leave them longer before begin- 

 ning to harvest them would, too much, curtail the 

 duration of the period in which they could be fed 

 with profit in the green form. 



Like other green crops they are cut with the 

 scythe or mower, and drawn in the usual way. 

 When these crops grow very rankly they are 

 occasionally thrown down with storms which in- 

 creases the labor of cutting them. In some instances 

 the mower can only be driven on two sides of the 

 plot or field, if the crop is to be cleanly gathered. 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



