Vol. LXVI. No. 2973. 
SIX TONS OF FORAGE PER ACRE. 
A System of Double Crops. 
What: would you do if you had 75 acres In crops 
which averaged over six tons of rough forage to the 
acre? What you would do with a herd of 50 cows 
and young stock would prove a terror to the mort¬ 
gage, and give you great opportunities on the stump 
as an institute speaker. 
Did anybody ever do this? 
Yes, it was done last year on the farm of the New 
Jersey Experiment Station at New Brunswick. You 
will remember that we printed several articles showing 
how one crop followed another, so that the land is 
never idle. Now we have a report of the crops for 
NEW YORK, JANUARY 19, 1907. 
I his is very important in growing crops in this way, 
because no time must be lost in preparing the soil. 
For example, one field of two acres gave nearly 12 tons 
of green wheat. ' 1 hen'it was plowed and planted to 
corn, giving 102 bushels and 4.(5 tons of fodder. Then 
it could be seeded to rye or wheat for forage next 
Spring. Another acre gave 7/ tons of wheat fodder, 
then after refitting 1 2'/j tons of Kaffir corn and cow 
peas, and is now in wheat or rye again. Still another 
field gave 'V/> tons of Crimson clover hay, 03 bushels 
of corn and 7/ tons of corn fodder, and is now in 
Crimson clover again. Thus the system is to keep 
the soil constantly covered by some forage crop which 
can be fed green as long as it is soft enough, and then 
what is left, cured into hay. We speak ot "fields” on 
WEEKLY, -f1.00 PER YEAR 
to them. Some ot these phosphates contain 30 to 32 
per cent of actual phosphoric acid, and are in the 
market at $3 per ton less than the acid or soluble phos¬ 
phates containing hut I t per cent phosphoric acid. The 
soluble phosphoric acid then costs 150 per cent more 
than insoluble. When I began the use of chemical 
fertilizers on my farm about 1H75, since which time 1 
have continued their use, mixing them by formulas 
wrought out of the farm by farm trials, chemists at¬ 
tached no farm value to the insoluble phosphates, and 
the trade then and now discouraged their use. Since 
IHHl plain phosphates have been in continuous use on 
my farm in an experimental way, and now enter into 
my regular fertilization for all farm crops, and yearly 
in increasing amounts. It will he seen that during all 
A SOILING CROP OF COW PEAS AND KAFFIR CORN IN NEW JERSEY. Fig. 16. 
the year—taken from 75 2-5 acres. They are grouped 
together as follows: 
(J hi:ion Fohaok. 
Wheat fodder. 24.43 tons. 
Rye fodder. 20.70 “ 
Cow pea fodder. 30.38 ■“ 
Millet fodder . 20.07 •• 
Kllnge corn. 224.30 “ 
Total ..,. 325.94 “ 
luiv Kodoeh. 
Alfalfa hay. 
tons. 
Millet huv. 
(’emmini cloyer hav. 
Oats unci pi'ii hay. 
It 
Timothy hay. 
Dry corn fodder. 
. 37.7(5 
II 
Total . 
. 132.98 
II 
1 here were in addition 520 bushels of dry corn. 
I bus you will see that the farm did average six tons 
of forage per acre. Understand that what we call 
green forage is wheat, rye, millet, etc., cut when the 
heads are forming, and fed green. As was the case 
with the millet the last of the crop can be dried and 
made into hay. I he green forage is cut every day 
and hauled at once to the stable or yard where it is 
fed to the cows. 
I he farmer who is satisfied with one crop during the 
season will wonder how it was possible to produce 
this enormous output. This is a good farm, and is 
never left idle. I lie soil is level, and has been thor¬ 
oughly drained, so that it can be worked at all seasons. 
this farm, but there are no fences—the "fields” being 
divisions of the farm accurately staked out, so that 
the crops can be weighed and recorded. Some fertil¬ 
izer is used, and the manure is hauled and spread as 
needed. At this time the entire farm is covered by 
some living crop—wheat, rye, Alfalfa or grass; on 
some lighter soils one plowing during the season 
would be enough- the remainder of the working being 
done with a disk harrow. This plan is a good one for 
several kinds of farming. Where a farmer has some 
level ground and the remainder hilly lie can use the 
latter for pasture and push the level ground hard with 
these forage crops. A market gardener can use a few 
acres in this way to provide forage for his stock, or to 
feed cattle for manure. The system works well with 
dairy cows, and might be made just as useful in feed¬ 
ing beef cattle. We believe it will he quite largely 
followed in the future. 
USE OF THE PLAIN PHOSPHATES. 
'I he undecomposed mineral phosphates, or the ground 
phosphatic materials on the market under the name of 
ground rock phosphates, floats, etc., are known to our 
New England trade as plain phosphates. Their value 
has recently been reviewed in your paper by that com¬ 
petent authority, Prof. Hopkins, who is certainly doing 
the farm interests a great service in inviting attention 
these years that chemists and scientific men have been 
discussing their use I have been using them, indeed 
before they had seriously been considered as a source of 
available plant food. 
I find that their value varies with the crops. A series 
of plots given over to crop rotation of eight years was 
the past season in oat hay. Plot 4, given acid phos¬ 
phate, gave a yield of (5,538 pounds of air-dry oats 
and peas, and plot 5 gave 6,H(5K pounds for the use of 
plain phosphate. But I write mainly to say that Prof. 
Hopkins lays too much stress on the necessity of the 
presence of humus in large quantities. My farm is 
a typical upland or hill New England granite soil. 
These farms are not rich in organic matter. They are 
far from being such soils as 1 saw at the Illinois State 
College farm, where Prof. Hopkins is investigating, to 
say nothing of the famous black soils of his State. 
Nor do 1 find the value of these phosphates confined 
to soils that have been recently manured. T am aware 
that the bacteria that aid in forming the acids in the 
soil that have to do with the solubility and availability 
of plain phosphates are not so active in soils low in 
organic matter, yet some of our upland or hill farms 
are at least slightly acid to acid, and on these tin- 
plain phosphates, as related, are working well. On 
freshly turned or on limestone soils or soils that are 
alkaline it might he and probably would be different. 
