442 
THE RURA.L, NEW-YORKER 
March 30, 
SOILING CROPS FOR MARYLAND FARMS 
First year, rye and vetch or wheat 
and vetch, corn and cow peas followed 
by Crimson clover sowed in corn at 
last cultivation. Second year, com¬ 
mencing in Spring, cow peas may be 
sown, or Soy beans, or corn and Soy 
beans to be followed by wheat and 
vetch in the Fall. To conduct a rota¬ 
tion like the above successfully, a 
farmer would necessarily need two 
fields after the first year. A rotation 
of soiling crops for a Maryland dairy 
farm can best be started in the Fall 
by sowing either rye and vetch, or 
wheat and vetch. The distinction is 
made because of the great diversity of 
soils. Poor soils may produce a good 
crop of rye and vetch, while they will 
only give a fair yield of wheat and 
vetch. So in general, farmers who are 
beginning with rather light soils should 
use the rye as a nurse crop with the 
vetch, but on the highly productive soils 
it would be more profitable to use 
wheat. 
Rye will grow rapidly in the early 
Spring, and by the 20th of April it will 
be at least 18 inches tall, and from this 
time on it may be used for soiling, 
until it is mature enough to cut for hay, 
Summer silage or to be plowed down 
for green manure. The proper stage 
of maturity for cutting for hay would 
generally come about the third week in 
May. The rye and vetch do not ma¬ 
ture at the same time, but wheat and 
vetch do; so that the latter combination 
is more desirable provided the land is 
suitable for their growth. Of course 
a small strip of rye could be planted 
for very early Spring soiling. The 
wheat should be cut in the soft dough 
stage when used for hay. This stage 
would generally be about the first week 
in June. The wheat and vetch may 
be used for soiling, hay, or Summer 
silage. When the crop has been re¬ 
moved the land should immediately be 
prepared for corn and cow peas. The 
corn and cow peas can be sown in rows 
with the peas and corn dropped from 
separate hoppers. There are spouts 
leading from each hopper that are so 
arranged that the corn and cow peas 
may be dropped in the same hill. 
The corn and cow peas may be 
planted as late as the 20th of June 
and still have ample time to mature be¬ 
fore frost strikes them if an early ma¬ 
turing variety of corn be planted. 
Learning will do very well. This crop, 
of corn and cow peas may be used 
either as a soiling crop or stored away 
for Winter silage. A crop of Crimson 
clover should be sown after the last 
cultivation of the corn, which would 
generally be about the second week in 
August. This crop will be partially 
shaded by the corn, and in this way 
a very good stand is generally secured. 
The clover continues to grow until 
freezing weather comes, and serves as 
a great protection to the soil during the 
Winter. In the Spring it grows vigor¬ 
ously, and by the middle of May it may 
be used for soiling, cut for hay or 
plowed down for green manure. When 
the clover has been harvested prepare 
the field for a Summer crop. This crop 
may be cow peas, Soy beans, or corn 
and Soy beans. Of course the corn 
and Soy beans should be planted simi¬ 
lar to the corn and cow peas. But the 
cow peas and Soy beans should be 
planted separately, and either one will 
grow on Maryland soils, yielding a 
highly nitrogenous feed for dairy ani¬ 
mals. The corn and Soy beans may be 
used for soiling and Winter silage. If 
either the cow peas or Soy beans are 
planted, then they may be used for hay, 
soiling, silage or green manuring. The 
cow peas make a good silage when 
chopped up with the corn. A bundle 
of corn, then a sheaf of the peas will 
give a very good mixture. In regard 
to plowing down the crop of cow peas 
or Soy beans, it would hardly be neces¬ 
sary to turn the whole crop under, be¬ 
cause there would be a large amount 
of organic nitrogen restored to the 
soil even in plowing down the stub¬ 
ble. The Alabama Station found that 
28% of the nitrogen was retained in 
the roots of the cow peas. In harvest¬ 
ing this last crop, the cycle of rotation 
shall be complete. The new cycle is 
begun again with wheat and vetch. A 
rotation like the above is a most ex¬ 
cellent one, because it will enable a 
farmer always to have on hand a sup¬ 
ply of succulent nitrogenous feed for 
his dairy animals. So with the ad¬ 
vantages of growing all these crops on 
Maryland soils, the dairymen of this 
State can certainly improve the condi¬ 
tions of their herds and soil manifold, 
if they put into practice a rotation of 
soiling crops similar to the above. 
F. E. ANDERSON. 
Maryland Exp. Station 
FEEDING SILAGE TO COLTS. 
I have been much interested in the 
discussion in regard to feeding silage 
to horses. After using silage for 30 
years, would give it as my opinion that 
if one has colts or idle horses, a part 
ration of good silage is beneficial as 
well as more economical. |As everyone 
should know, the stomach of a horse is 
relatively small, and any radical change 
in feed is often dangerous. One should 
begin with a small quantity, gradually 
increasing to a peck twice a day for a 
weanling, nearly as much again for 
older colts, governed, of course, by size, 
ability to digest, etc. This with two 
quarts of a mixture of crushed oats and 
bran, about half and half by weight, fed 
on the silage, with all the clean hay they 
will eat at noon, wiil, I think, give you 
good, healthy, growing colts. One thing 
should be kept in mind; they must have 
exercise, also free access to salt. Very 
few men seem to know how to feed and 
handle colts. Once in awhile one will 
see in some paper that it is just as easy 
to raise colts as any other stock, but I 
for one don’t believe it. They must have 
the constant care of one who knows how 
in order to train them to be safe horses, 
able and willing to do their best. When¬ 
ever I see a colt four or five years old 
driven with a kicking strap across its 
back, head pulled away out of its natural 
position with an overdrawn check, driver 
riding prepared to jump out at any 
minute, in fact with all the appearance 
of being afraid of his team, I think 
•some fool has had the handling of that 
particular colt. I never had occasion to 
use such things in all my experience 
with colts and young horses, as I felt 
quite sure that they would not kick, no 
matter what happened, as they were 
trained, not broken, to have full con¬ 
fidence in me, enough so that when any¬ 
thing happened, or they saw anything 
they did not understand, just a word 
would restore their nerves to normal 
condition. There are several things one 
must understand before he will be a 
successful trainer of colts, but a good 
feed, good care, gentleness with firm¬ 
ness, together with a big lot of patience, 
will help out a whole lot. w. h. p. 
New Hampshire. 
A Milk Ration. 
Please give a balanced ration for ray 
milch cows. I have always fed 300 pounds 
gluten and 400 pounds grains with good 
results, but gluten being so high we have 
been feeding 100 pounds gluten, 100 pounds 
oil meal (old process), 500 distillers’ grains, 
seven to eight pounds per day per cow ; one 
bushel good rich silage, and all the peas 
and oats or clover hay they will eat at 
noon. I am going to substitute cottonseed 
meal for oil meal. My cows are not in as 
good condition as I like, and are giving 
only about one-lialf the milk they should. 
What is the matter? f. j. g. 
Pennsylvania. 
Your ration probably figures out about as 
follows: 
Carbo- 
Dry hydrates 
matter. Protein, and fat. 
Silage, 35 lbs. 
7.35 
.315 
Clover bay, 12 lbs.. 
10.20 
.816 
Gluten feed, 1 lb.. 
.90 
232 
Oil meal, 1 lb. 
.91 
.293 
Distillers’ grains, 5 
lbs. 
4.60 
1.240 
4.515 
4.752 
.099 
.435 
2.7G0 
23.96 2.896 13.211 
Nutritive ratio, 1:4.5 
In the case of the peas and oats hay the 
ratio will be a trifle wider. Assuming that 
your cows have fairly warm stables, and are 
not unnecessarily exposed to the cold out 
of doors, your ration conforms very closely 
to the standard, and, other conditions being 
favorable, ought to give good results. There¬ 
fore I am inclined to believe that your 
difficulty is due to some other cause or 
causes than the feed. I am not just sure, 
from your letter, how you feed. The best 
way will be silage and grain (grain scat¬ 
tered over the silage) morning and night. 
and hay at noon. Water once or twice a - 
day, and at as near the same time as pos¬ 
sible ; regularity in feeding, watering and 
milking are important. Aside from incor¬ 
rect feeding there are many things which 
may interfere with milk production, such as 
exposure, lice, poor condition before calv¬ 
ing or overfeeding immediately after, harsh 
treatment, frozen silage, etc., but I have 
no means of knowing what is the trouble 1 
in your case. The addition of 200 pounds 
of corn meal to your grain mixture will 
help, if your stables are not warm, and if 
other conditions are made favorable, will 
help to bring them back into good flesh. 
c. L. m. ! 
Sorghum for Stock Food. 
I have been raising sorghum, for the last 
20 years, have from four to five acres every 
year. 1 find that four acres of sorghum 
are as good as 20 of fodder. Stock of all 
kinds like it, and do well on it. I feed it 
to horses just as it is; they will eat every¬ 
thing clean, and do well without much care 
when not at hard work. For cows I put 
sorghum through cutting box, take all the 
seed off, as it does no good to cow, so hard 
and small; that I feed to chickens and save 
my seed for next year. I give about one- 
half bushel of this cut sorghum to cow 
with cotton-seed meal, bran and corn and 
cob meal: they do well on it, and make 
the nice yellow butter. Hogs will do well 
on it when in the fattening lot; it is a 
kind of relish to them. I think that If 
some of the small farmers who have their 
feed to buy would plant half an acre they 
would be astonished at what they would 
have. I have had calf with cow three weeks 
old that would eat it with mother, and get 
fat. As to cultivating, just the same as 
corn; I have ground in fine shape, then 
drill in thick, so as will not grow too large 
stalk, about May 20 to June 1; if planted 
too soon in Spring it is not so good, as 
warm Fall will make it woody. Cutting 
here is the main thing; let it get ripe; wait 
till it is dried in morning. In no way do 
I lay it down; it will mould if you do. 
Stand it up always. It will not hurt it to 
get frosted if ripe standing, but is better to 
have in shock; if put up in good shape and 
ripe will be good till Spring. Young mules 
will grow and be fat on it if they have 
shelter. I do. not have any amount to sow 
to acre, just let it run. I save my own 
seed, then know what I get. In feeding to 
stock start cautiously till they get used to 
it, or might bloat. R. G. p. 
Milton, Ky. 
Deadly Gas in Silo. 
On page 340 C. It. B., Pennsylvania, asks 
for information as to building a silo, a 
portion of it to be 10 or 15 feet under 
ground. While I have had no experience 
with silos, I think it would be well to 
warn him of the danger of carbonic gas, 
thrown off from the fermenting silage, 
gathering in the bottom of his silo; this 
would be deadly to anyone sinking below 
the surface of the ground. As this gas is 
heavier than air, it must have some vent to 
drain off, which it would do much the same 
as water would. This gas is not poisonous, 
as is sometimes erroneously stated, but 
being heavier than air it expels the air from 
the lungs of the person surrounded by it, 
and that person drowns much the same as 
if immersed in water. r. l. h. 
Hamilton, Ont. 
R. N.-Y.—We have printed this warning 
several times, and it should be frequently 
repeated. _ 
Speltz in New York. —I notice M. 
N.’s inquiry in regard to speltz on page 
229. Our mill does a lot of grinding for 
the farmers, and several years ago we had 
quite a lot of speltz to grind. It seems 
to resemble barley in appearance nearer 
than oats, but compares with oats in weight. 
The farmers who raised it, at least, claimed 
to be pleased with it, but I notice it has 
completely dropped out of sight, and I 
doubt if we could find a single farmer In 
our vicinity who raises it. It seems to 
me this is a pretty good, argument to stick 
to oats or barley, or both. miller. 
Allegany Co., N. Y. 
Concrete Floor in IIoghouse. —Will 
some hog raisers give their experience with 
a concrete floor in hoghouse, both inside 
and outside pens? e. v. s. i 
Chester Co., Pa. ' 
GARDEN 
TOOLS from 
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EOR the best go where the best i 
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If you want a garden tOoL 
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iron Am 
made at Grenloch, New 
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, Our No. 6 is a com- 
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operation between 
plowing and harvest- 
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. ing, Can be pnr- 
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form and attachments added as MjP 'V? 
needed. We have the sprayers, v 
too. Ask your dealer to show 
you Iron Age No. 6. Write to¬ 
day for special booklets. Com¬ 
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orchard tools. 
Phila. 
BATEMAN M’F’G CO. 
Box 102 J Grenloch, N. J. 
Y/a 
$ 10 , 000.00 
Deposited With Bank 
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