8 
Fanners' Bulletin 1181. 
grazing may reduce tliis danger, but does not ^Yllolly overcome it. 
Any such risk from feeding the cured liay would be slight. 
Oats and peas grown together furnish most of the grazing, after 
using the wheat, mitil rape and soy beans are ready. The oats and 
peas may be sown early, and seedings at different dates insure later 
pasturage that is still succulent and tender. Our first seeding of the 
crop in 1019 was on April 6, and it Avas ready for grazing on May 28. 
Eape, as stated, has not been largely used on the land described, 
because of the low fertility of the soil. The crop of 1919 was planted 
on April 10 and required 10 weeks to be ready for pasturage. Plant- 
ings made in Avarmer w^eather should grow' more rapidly, but in mid- 
summer rape becomes bitter and is not relished so much as earlier. 
On rich land rape can be the main forage crop from the time the 
Fig. 3. — Ewes and lambs in rape, Beltsville, Md., June 20, 1917. 
first seeding is ready for use. Well-grown plants withstand a good 
deal of frost, and the crop should be useful for extending the grazing 
season late into the fall. Lambs require several days to learn to eat 
rape readily, and it is an advantage if they can spend a few hours 
each day on some othier crop until they have learned to like rape. 
Bloating rarely occurs in sheep pasturing on rape, but it is well to 
see them frequently during the first few days on this crop or in 
frosty Aveather. Rape ordinarily yields better and is grazed with 
less Avaste Avhen planted in drills. 
Soy beans in the 1919 rotation of forages were planted from June 
11 to August 4. Pasturing of the earliest planting was begun one 
month after seeding, though it is usually desirable to allow 5 or 6 
weeks between seeding and grazing. This particular crop of 3 acres 
carried 66 lambs for 14 days in July and then 70 ewes for another 9 
