©ST.ig 
THE RURAL 
must be done before the sheath has come into 
range of the scythe, otherwise the embiyo ear 
is cut off and the crop is confined to those 
stalks which have so far been delayed in their 
growth by the vigor of the leading ones. At 
any into, then the cutting must necessarily lie 
done while the herbage is small and before the 
main shoots have grown to a length of three 
inches, else the second growth will be very 
light. The first cutting of rye, in fact, will be 
so light as to be hardly worth taking, and, if it 
is worth it the second growth will be very 
light. I have grown rye for soiling more or 
lew for 15 years, and have never yet found it 
to yield a double cutting worth the labor; if 
the first is good for anything, the second is 
next to worthless; and if the second is to be 
good, the first must lie taken so early as to be 
of little value. There is very little growth 
in rye before April, and as rye often shows 
ears in April it must be very clear that there 
cannot lie time to make much of a first cutting 
and yet get a second one. In fact, one may, 
under favorable circumstances, turn a few 
calves on to the rye in the Fall or Spring, but 
not cows, excepting under special and rare 
circumstances, and then merely to save the 
rye, rather than to feed the cows a full meal. 
When the heads appear the cutting of rye 
may begin and may last until it is in full 
blossom, when it should be cut and made into 
hay. At this time, which will be in June, the 
clover and early grass will be ready for cut¬ 
ting and the rye will be getting hard and 
woody. Rye has often disappointed those 
who have grown it for soiling, because it has 
been cut too late; for as soon as i t gets tough 
and hard, it is a poor milk-producing food; 
but when it is young it is different. As soon 
as the blossoms appear it should be cut and 
not left a day longer. 
When there is ample store of fodder, the rye 
cannot be put to a better use thau to plow it 
under as a green manure for coni. This can 
be done with ease, when it is five or six feet 
tall, by meaus of the drag chain recently de¬ 
scribed iu the Rural, and the stalks com¬ 
pletely covered; the surface should then be 
rolled, and harrowed only with a sloping- 
tooth harrow, so that the rye is not torn up. 
This course pursued for a few years, with rye 
aud com alternately, and the rye sown again 
on the com stubble, will make a light soil as 
rich as a garden. If this is done or proposed 
to be done, there should be twice as much rye 
sown as will be cut, aud then one-half can be 
plowed in, in aJternat' years. In cutting the 
iye it should not be forgotten to leave a suf¬ 
ficient quantity to the last, aud put it in 
sheaves and dry it for making bands for bind¬ 
ing the fodder corn in sheaves. This is the 
most convenient manner of putting up fodder 
com, aud rye straw is the best material for 
binding. 
CORN NOTES. 
C. A. GREEN. 
I planted pure white seed com without 
one kernel of mixture with any other 
color, yet on harvesting I find one quart er of 
the crop is pure uumixed dark ml in co or, 
and nearly twice as productive as ordinary 
varieties, the earn being much more numerous, 
and of amazing leugtb. There was no red 
com growing in the vicinity—indeed this 
freak of the red ears is not a new one, but it ap¬ 
pears in this vuriety of white corn regularly. 
I shall plant the red corn by itself next season 
and note the results. Our com, being on low 
ground, was not at all injured by the pro¬ 
tracted drought. There are few crops that 
reward the farmer more generously for atten¬ 
tion in selecting desirable seed than corn. By 
selection we can, in time, make a variety 
combining almost any qualification desired. 
I have now, Sept. 27, a considerable portion 
of my 10 acres of com husked. I have never 
been able to see the policy of deferring corn- 
husking until the weather becomes so cold as 
to benumb the whole person, and render a full 
day’s work impossible, and until the days are 
so short and the weather so uncertain as to 
prolong the job indefinitely. I instruct my 
men to busk only' the merchantable ears, con 
sidering the safest place for the soft on re and 
nubbins to be with the stalks, where the stock 
will find aud consume them without waste. I 
believe the time will come when we shall have 
perfected machinery for husking rapidly in 
the field, or else for thrashing out the com, as 
we now thrash wheat. Corn is a wonderful 
crop, full of beauty, utility and profit; but 
the ingenuity of the age has not yet grappled 
with the problem of harvesting it economic¬ 
ally. It is not only our main reliance for 
fodder, for pork, mutton, beef, and alcohol, 
but now does much towards supplying us with 
sugar and sirup. The loss of no crop is felt so 
keenly, as we are all likely to realize after the 
present, light yield. Who will invent mach¬ 
inery for harvesting und thrashing tins im¬ 
portant product. A reaper should cut and 
leave it in gavels, where it should lie until 
partially cured. Then it should be bound 
with willow bands in small bundles and 
shocked until fully cured. Then we should have 
some machine for thrashing it. If the thrash¬ 
ing could not be done otherwise, the stalks 
and corn could be run through a ponderous 
cutter and chopped into pieces, and then 
thrashed. There is certainly some way of 
securing the desired end. Where the corn is 
designed to lie fed on the premises, these 
chopped stalks and com can be fed without 
waste to all stock except swine, and this is an 
economical method of harvesting. A husking 
machine is now manufactured, but bow far it 
is successful I have not been able to learn. A 
publisher solicited its advertising, and was 
advised that as the demaud for machines 
far exceeded the supply, the company could 
not spend money in advertising. But as I 
have not found this machine, or any other, on 
exhibition where every opportunity was 
offered to show farmers what it could do, and 
considering the multitude of machines that 
could be manufactured in an emergency, I 
suspect this invention is not perfected far 
enough to induce farmers to use it largely. I 
am not posted, however, and should be glad 
to hear from those who are. 
Monroe Co., N. Y. 
Sprouting Crab-Grass—Panicum Pro- 
liferum. 
This is an annual grass having smooth 
leaves and stems. The leaves are a foot or 
two in length, flat and rather broad. The 
culms are thick and succulent and much 
branched. The panicles are large, pyramidal, 
the slender branches spreading, the culms 
part of the Summer months. The foliage is 
rich and tender, and the succulent, rather 
thick stems are sweet and juicy. After cut¬ 
ting, it throws out numerous sprouts from the 
lower joints, which grow rapidly so as to al¬ 
low repeated cuttings until frost.” 
Mich. Ag’l Coll. Prof. W. J. Beal. 
Jute Culture in Louisiana.—H erewith I 
send the Rural a sample of jute fiber ob¬ 
tained from my Point Clear plantation in this 
spikelet of sprouting crab-grass, 
fig. 470. 
parish. The seed was sown in the latter part 
of last March and in the first days of August 
the plant had reached a hight of from 10 to 14 
feet. A part of it was cut down and steeped 
during eight days, when the bark was entire¬ 
ly gone, having dissolved like so much starch 
and leaving the fiber hanging loosely to the 
stalks. This was easily separated by hand 
and thrown on the ground to dry. It was af¬ 
terwards worked through a '‘hackle ” by hand 
and then washed in clear water. Nothing 
more was done to it—and the fiber speaks for 
itself. I calculate that, planted in drills four 
SPROUTING CRAB-I 
become two or three feet high, or much high¬ 
er. It is found on salt marshes, especially on 
sandy soils, from Massachusetts southward. It 
flowers in August and September. The an¬ 
thers are orange-colored. Cattle and horees 
seem vary fond of the plant. In the South it 
is quite a common weed in coni fields. Mr. 
Mohr, of Mobile, in the Agricultural Report, 
says: “ In damp, grassy places it prefers rich 
ground, throughout the coast region. It com¬ 
mences to vegetate vigorously in the hottest 
i.— fig. 4fi9. 
eet apart, it will yield 1,200 pounds, and sown 
broadcast not less than 2,000 pounds. I have 
85 acres of jute covered with seed, which 1 
shall permit to mature, as I intend to make a 
heavy planting next year—say 300 acres, and 
shall then have a good supply for sale. I do 
not seek notoriety but merely desire to show 
to what additional use our rich soil can be put. 
Plaquemine, La. c. a. b. 
[The sample is three feet long, the fiber 
strong and silky.—E ds.] 
♦ 
STOCK-FEEDING UNDER DIFFICUL¬ 
TIES. 
PROFESSOR E. W. STEWART. 
Suggestions for th e Se a son. 
Periodically our farmers are forced to 
face a failure of pastures with short forage 
and grain crops. “Misfortunes seldom come 
single,” but skill is only shown under difficul¬ 
ties. If the farmer’s crops were always good, 
his cattle always thrifty and healthy, prices 
always satisfactory, 1 fear there would be less 
progress than now. The fanner must learn to 
face all his difficulties and conquer them all. 
This season has brought one of the most se¬ 
vere droughts ever experienced. It literally 
went to the root of pasture grassland dried 
up their juices iu a remarkably short time. 
Its extent is the whole country, commencing 
first in some of the Southern States, but reach¬ 
ing all the States before the middle of August. 
The favorable point is that many of the States 
affected by drought matured a fair hay crop 
before the dry weather became severe; and 
this will lighten the situation in those States 
very much. The corn crop is so much reduced 
that its price will be raised at least 00 per 
cent, over last year's price. This will be a 
very serious obstacle in those States where 
the corn crop furnishes the staple article, both 
of grain and course fodder, for winter-feeding 
and fattening. It will reduce exportation of 
corn, which I do not think a calamity, for it is 
much more profitable to feed our corn and ex¬ 
port our meat instead. 
The stra w crop is also a moderate one, and 
was formerly considered of little account in 
feeding, but is now better appreciated. The 
method of harvesting the corn crop in the 
Western States renders the stalks, or stover, 
of very little value as food for cattle, and still 
less for sheep. They become mere dried, 
woody fiber. If the com were put in shock as 
soon as the ear reaches the dough state, and 
while the stalk is green, the stover would have 
a value of one-half to two-thirds that of hay. 
FALL MANAGEMENT IN DROUGHT. 
The question first to lie considered is that 
forced upon farmers everywhere for immedi¬ 
ate decision—What is the best plan of Fall 
management iu view of the severe th ought i 
The first and general answer to be given to 
tliis question, and in -which all gopd feeders 
will agree, is to supplement the pasture with 
other food to make a full ration. Nothing can 
be more opposed to profitable feeding than to 
compel young and growing cattle or milch 
cows to live upon short rations during the 
mild weather of the Fall. Nature indicates a 
mild temperature us the most favorable condi¬ 
tion for producing growth, flesh, fat or milk 
from a given quantity of food. The same food 
will produce during October from one-third 
to two-thirds more growth, fat or milk than 
in cold weather. Young cattle should be 
pushed so as to reach Winter in fine, thrifty 
condition, and those intended for fattening 
should be made to lay ou flesh and fat as fast 
as possible during the mild weather, so as to 
render the finishing process in cold weather 
the more easy. If they are suffered to reach 
cold weather in a thin and unthrifty condi¬ 
tion, they are less able to withstand the cold, 
and with impaired digestion can make only 
very slow progress with full feeding in Win¬ 
ter. It is, therefore, simply strict economy 
to feed such growing and fattening cattle a 
full and generous ration during the mild Fall 
weather. And for milch cows good feeding is 
most imperative, or the profitable production 
of milk, for which the cows are kept, will 
cease. This principle of feeding is most evi¬ 
dent to all who have studied the subject. 
DRIED GRASSES AND CLOVERS. 
Where prudent foresight has been exercised, 
clover, at the first indication of blossom, has 
been cut early iu June, nicely cured and put 
away for a time of need. This is only slightly 
less nutritious awl appetizing to cattle than 
the green clover itself. And the time of need 
is now everywhere that pastures are short. 
The cattle, put into barn and fed over-night 
with this sweet-smelling clover hay, will go 
into the pasture in the morning with such 
satisfaction as hardly to miss its aforetime 
freshness. Those farmers who sow Timothy 
and clover for home feeding, and have cut it 
when the clover reached its first blossom, will 
find this delicate.preserved grass most welcome 
to their cattle now. The miscellaneous grasses 
of our meadows, cut also in the greatest suc¬ 
culence, and nicely cured, will furnish a most 
excellent supplementary food to the brown 
and bare pastures. All these grasses and clo¬ 
vers will also have yielded a second crop, even 
in this past season. Being cut so early, the 
grass starts anew and so vigorously as to pro¬ 
duce a respectable second crop before the 
drought stops its growth. These second crops, 
thus cured, are the best substitutes for pasture 
