1896 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
447 
which gave green fodder about April 1 the next sea¬ 
son. I sowed three pecks per acre. The secret of 
this method of cropping is promptness, mellowness, 
fertility, and some luck regarding the weather. 
I have not been successful with late sowed barley. 
August 10, 1893, one acre was sown with one bushel 
of Canada field peas and 100 pounds of barley. About 
October 20, there was a good crop on the land, seven 
or eight green tons, equal in every way to oats and 
peas. It withstood frost well, and in November, I 
cut green feed for the cows for a week upon ground 
that was frozen in the morning. The cows liked them. 
This crop was successful. Before and since, some five 
or six times, barley with and without peas, has been 
tried by us without success, and has been given up. 
The season of the year seems, in some way, to be un¬ 
natural, and the per cent of failures has been too 
large with us to make it a profitable crop. He who 
is unwilling to do prompt and thorough work would 
better leave catch crops alone. e. c. birge. 
An Old-Time Massachusetts Dairyman Talks. 
I find, by looking back through my farm journal, 
that I have sown millet as late as August 4 but it was 
too late, and the crop was small. Millet, like corn, is 
a hot-weatlier plant, and does best sown not later 
than the middle of July. I have had good crops of it 
sown July 14 and 19. That sown July 19, was cut for 
hay August 31. Millet will not endure frost, neither 
will corn, and in this latitude (42 degrees) we may 
always expect some frost early in September. I would 
not plant corn for forage much after July 4, as late- 
planted corn is subject to rust, more so than millet 
sown at the same date. To help out the hay crop, I 
would plant corn all through J une, millet up to the mid¬ 
dle of July, and then barley to the middle of August. 
I have sown it as late as August 25, and 
cut a paying crop. Barley and oats are 
cool-weather plants, and thrive better 
in spring and fall than during the heat 
of midsummer ; but neither spring nor 
fall are good seasons for drying fodder. 
The best hay weather is in midsummer, 
as a rule. 
Summer droughts have been much to 
be feared in all my farm experience, and 
my plans have been such as to avoid 
losses on this account. Farmers who 
would be, in a measure, free from anx¬ 
iety on tbis score, should look ahead 
more than a few weeks or months. Too 
many of us are at the mercy of the pres¬ 
ent year’s elements. We could avoid 
this by always endeavoring to carry a 
surplus of a good year over to the next. 
I made it a rule to have several tons of 
old hay on hand at the time the new 
crop was ready to cut. To save hay, 
grew winter rye to be cut and fed green 
in May and June, oats and barley for 
June and July, corn for July, August 
and early September, millet for August 
and September, barley, and barley and 
rye mixed for green feeding in October 
and November, always aiming for a full 
supply under favoi’able conditions. Then whatever 
surplus there might be which was not needed for feed¬ 
ing green, was dried for winter feeding. I have de¬ 
pended much less on common English grasses for cow 
food than on the other crops named, chiefly because I 
could raise more good food per acre in these than in 
the common grasses. On some kinds of land, it might 
have been different. My land was not the best grass 
land—a little too dry—but would produce well under 
frequent cultivation and liberal manuring. Under 
my system of farming, the land became so rich and 
mellow that a fair ci'op could be expected without 
any manure ; yet I made a practice of applying ma¬ 
nure or fertilizer liberally for each and every crop, 
and I have sometimes grown three forage crops in a 
year on the same land—winter rye, cut in June, 
millet cut in August, and baidey cut in October or 
November. I have had very good success sowing 
barley and rye together in August and early Septem¬ 
ber. Barley sown in August, will head out while the 
x*ye thickens up at the bottom, and together, they will 
turn out a heavy crop suited to green feeding in 
November, or till the ground freezes. Then the rye 
w ill make a good crop the next spring. 
I have given my method of providing against losses 
from droughts, but one should not expect too much 
from the first experiments in this direction. An old 
grass field that has been mowed a dozen years, and 
pastured every fall after haying, as is too often prac¬ 
ticed, is not only low in fertility, but will show a 
hard, tough sod on being plowed in July, and if one 
be not vei-y careful to retain the moisture, it will be 
so di-ied out by the time it is made ready for sowing, 
that the seed cannot spx-out unless a good shower fall 
at just the right time. Barley is valuable for grow¬ 
ing fodder in the last half of the year, but T haye 
known seasons so dry that it was almost impossible to 
get the seed to germinate. But these risks must be 
taken, or an empty barn is a certainty. 
Were I in doubt about having hay enough to cari'.y 
me through, I would cut what there is on a good field 
to plow, and then begin turning it over, and seeding 
to some forage crop as fast as possible. I would pre¬ 
fer using fertilizer instead of manure, because it 
could be applied quicker. I would try to get the 
plowing, pulverizing, fertilizing and seeding pushed 
along so fast that the moisture already in the soil 
would sprout the seed. To do this on a large farm 
with plenty of teams and men, would be easy enough, 
as the cultivator and roller could keep but little be¬ 
hind the plow. I use a swivel plow, and work from 
one side always, so the seeding may be but a few 
hours behind the plow. With but one team to work 
with, I would plow a strip and then harrow, fertilize, 
seed and roll at once, or before the moisture was dried 
out. I would sow millet till about the middle of July, 
and then barley for another month. 1 have had but 
little experience with peas for fodder, but I know 
that they will, sometimes, do well sown for late feed¬ 
ing ; but I should not expect much success in making 
them into hay late in the season. Perhaps they could 
be cured successfully in a silo, but of thU I cannot 
speak from experience. A. w. ciieever. 
Massachusetts. 
Good Lessons Taught by Drought. 
A much larger acreage of corn than usual has been 
planted, but so far, weather conditions have not been 
favorable, and growth has not been rapid. In some 
cases, seed has rotted, and in others, cutworms have 
done much damage. Although corn for ensilage or 
to be cured for fodder, is the most important, substi¬ 
tute for hay, still there are other grains that may be 
sown late in the season with a fair prospect of a pay¬ 
ing crop. In several instances, I have known peas to 
be sown late in June, after worms had eaten the corn 
previously planted. In one case, a neighbor har¬ 
vested nearly 40 bushels of peas to the acre grown 
under such circumstances. On my farm, corn was 
drilled in on a four-acre field late in the season, and 
wireworms devoured most of it. A little befoi’e July 
1, it was l-eseeded with Canada peas. The vines grew 
to the height of three or four feet, and were fairly 
well podded. The scattering corn held many of them 
up from the ground. They were cut while the vines 
were partly green and the peas not hardened, with 
the mowing machine, partly cured and put in the 
mow while the peas were still soft. This crop was a 
perfect success in yield and in feeding value. I 
would not hesitate to sow peas on land adapted to 
the crop at any time before July 1, to be cured and 
fed in place of hay and grain combined. 
I have had fair success with millet and Hungarian 
grass sown late in the season, and used the same for 
soiling and for winter feed—but never with so good 
results as with peas. The cost of seed, however, is 
much less. Late-sown oats are likely to rust; I have 
tried to raise them as a second crop for fall feed, but 
would not repeat the experiment. I have not tried 
barley as a late crop, but think that would succeed, 
as it grows rapidly, and is not so liable to rust as oats. 
I would not sow any kind of grain later than July 1. 
Oats, peas and barley, in this vicinity, now promise 
a good growth of straw. If the grain be cut before 
it is dead ripe, the straw will be of considerable value 
for wintering cattle and horses. My son wintered 15 
one and two-year-old heifers last winter on straw, pota¬ 
toes and bran ; no hay was fed, and I never saw young 
stock do better, or go to pasture in better condition. 
The straw was from mixed grain, peas, oats and bar¬ 
ley, and was eaten clean. The cattle were not out of 
the stable during the winter. We have generally 
used straw for bedding all farm stock, but last winter 
used sawdust and fed all the straw. As a x-esult, 
some hay has been sold, and there is quite a large 
mow now in the barn. The price here now is $15 per 
ton. The best foundation for surplus hay is good 
corn land well manured, a good corn crop, and a first- 
class silo well filled. c. s. bice. 
Lewis County, N. Y. 
THE BULLFROG; ITS USE IN THE WORLD. 
The last issue of The Popular Science Monthly con¬ 
tains an interesting article on frogs by R W. Shu- 
feldt, M. D. Our picture, Fig. 145, is taken from the 
article. All farm boys know what the bullfrog is. 
They have heard him at night, bellowing in the 
neighboring swamp, and they have watched his won¬ 
derful leaps and dives as he hastened for safety into 
the nearest pond or stream. To some of our readers, 
the frog is a source of revenue, for his hind legs are 
considered a dainty dish by the epicures, who are 
often ready to pay $1 or more for a pair of them 
when niceiy broiled and served. At the best city 
markets, you will be sure to find an array of frogs’ 
legs offered for sale. These frogs are. for the most 
part, caught by hunters and fishermen in rivei's and 
ponds, and sent to the city. The St. Lawrence River 
is a great breeding place for frogs and a good many 
boys and men make their living hunting for them. 
Half a dozen times during the year, we receive 
letters from people who ask why they cannot make a 
success of frog farming. Their argument is about as 
follows : 1. Frogs will grow and thrive 
in places where nothing else of value 
can be produced. They do not need any 
feeding. 2. They will breed so fast 
that no one can figui-e how many tons of 
legs may be produced from an acre. 
3. They ought to sell at 50 cents a pair, 
at least, hence there is great px-ofit in 
the business. The theory of this plan is 
perfect, but somehow, it does not seem 
to work out in practice. We have spent 
considerable time in hunting down re¬ 
ports of alleged “frog farms,” but in 
every case, the only basis of the report 
was the fact that some one was catching 
a few frogs out of a swamp, and esti¬ 
mating what ought to be done if every 
frog would do its full duty in hatching 
eggs, and every tadpole would grow 
into a big frog. We do not believe 
that “frog farming” is practicable, 
chiefly for the reason that the large 
frogs eat up the smaller ones whenever 
they can catch them. It is a genuine 
case of the “ survival of the fittest,” and 
that never means a large population, 
though it may produce strong individuals. 
But aside fx*om all this, the bullfrog 
has a scientific value that has been 
put to considerable practical use. In its physical 
make-up, the frog presents some remarkable chax-- 
acteristics. Take the study of the circulation of 
the blood or processes of inflammation as seen 
under the microscope. There is no better me¬ 
dium for studying them than in the web of a frog’s 
foot, and thousands of students everywhere owe to 
the bullfrog their practical knowledge of these im¬ 
portant processes. What we know of the muscular 
and nervous systems, of the true action of various 
poisons, the more obscure actions of the heart, and of 
the cause of certain forms of pai'alysis, has mostly 
been learned from operations on frogs. In fact, this 
animal seems to have been especially designed by 
Nature as a living machine for demonstrating some 
of the most important truths of physiology. Thus 
the humble frog, with no dangei-ous faults, may be 
said to have contributed rather more than his share 
to the service of humanity. 
It would take too long to describe the many curious 
physical traits of the frog. Put one into a tub of 
water, and watch it breathe and swim. It has no 
ribs, so that the chest cannot work as in the human. 
The air is litei’ally pumped or swallowed into the 
lungs. Observe too, how the eye rolls up with little 
movement of the upper lid. Dr. Shufeldt says that 
a frog can be killed by tying him out in the hot sun, 
for the surface of the skin must be kept moist, or its 
functions will be destroyed. The frog has a sort of 
reservoir in which it holds water which it can excrete 
at will over the sui’face of the body. Another singu¬ 
lar fact is that, at the lower end of the backbone, 
are two lymph hearts, which may be seen to beat or 
pulsate with considerable force. These hearts have 
nothing to do with the blood circulation, but pump 
the lymph into the veins. A student of natural 
history can spend many hours studying the frog. 
THE COMMON BULLFROG. HALF NATURAL SIZE. Fig. 145. 
