90 FORAGE CROPS 
also bind the soil and prevent the washing and 
blowing away of the finer particles in winter and 
spring, thus keeping the land in better condition 
for the oats crop, besides accumulating organic 
matter. 
If either clover or the Essex rape is seeded 
with the oats, the land does not le bare and ex- 
posed to the direct rays of the sun through the hot 
season, but is shaded with plants, which keep it 
cooler, and which are useful for pasture until it is 
time to prepare for wheat. The wheat crop is 
usually harvested early in July; if immediately 
afterward the land is thoroughly disked, and seeded 
with cowpeas, the land will again be covered dur- 
ing the hot months of July and August, and this 
will prevent, in large part, the possible destruction 
of bacteria, and at the same time make a crop of 
hay, which, under ordinary conditions of fertility, 
should yield from one to two tons per acre, and be 
harvested in time for seeding to timothy and clover. 
This better preparatory treatment of the land will 
encourage a better germination and more rapid 
growth of the crop in the fall. The crop will reach 
maturity at the usual time for hay-making, and 
since the object sought is the hay crop, and the 
land is entirely given up to this object, it is likely 
to make a better catch and be freer from weeds 
than if seeded with a grain crop. This method has 
proved to be entirely feasible in practice. With 
