1010. 
THE RURAI> NEW-YORKER 
167 
PEAS AND OATS FOR COWS. 
What about cow peas and oats for a 
dairy cow? Would you plant them? What 
time is best to cut the hay and how does 
it compare with clover hay for cows? 
c. P. 
You no doubt refer to Canada field 
peas and oats. The small round peas can 
be sown early with oats—as soon as the 
ground can be worked. They should 
be cut while the oats arc soft or “milky” 
and while the little peas are just form¬ 
ing in the pod, then cured like clover 
hay. By analysis this hay of oats and 
peas has about 80 per cent the value of 
clover. The cow pea is really a bean 
and is too tender to seed with oats. It 
should not be planted until the soil is fit 
for corn. 
CROPS TO PLOW UNDER. 
H. D. L., Concord, N. II. —I have noticed 
in “Hope Farm Notes” about the sowing of 
Crimson clover, turnips, etc., between corn 
to be turned under later. I .tried Crimson 
clover in corn in a light sandy soil, which 
had been well manured. Crop of corn was 
good, but clover was scarcely an inch tall, 
yellow and weak-looking. Seed was not sown 
until the latter part of August owing to its 
being so dry that I wished to keep up cul¬ 
tivation as long as possible. The land had 
not been limed. I tried another similar 
piece with Cow-horn turnips, rape and 
clover mixed, between cor i. Turnips and 
rape made good growth, but clover hardly 
any. This field also received no lime. I 
would like to sow clover again if I thought 
there was any chance of success. Which is 
the proper time to plow under soiling crops, 
Fall or Spring? 
Ans.—W e have had no personal ex¬ 
perience with Crimson clover in your 
latitude, but we think Hartford, Conn, 
would be almost as far north as it 
should be used, except for experiment. 
The small yellow growth was probably 
due to the late sowing and dry weather. 
We should sow rape and Cow-horn tur¬ 
nips and experiment with vetch mixed 
with these seeds. We plow the manurial 
crops under in Sping. 
WEARING OUT THE HUMUS. 
The article by A. W. S., page 1, is 
suggestive. The whole trouble with his 
neighbors seems to be they have failed 
to understand the importance of keep¬ 
ing up the humus conditions in their 
soil. They even make the live stock 
one of the means for the destruction of 
the humus instead of maintaining and 
increasing it I have long insisted that 
is is a b'ad practice for a farmer whose 
interest is in grain crops to allow cattle 
to pasture at all on his cultivated fields. 
Not that some form of live stock in¬ 
dustry is not important to every farm¬ 
er, but on a farm in the East, devoted 
to grain, there should be a permanent 
pasture for the few cattle needed to 
be kept, so that there would be no need 
for fencing the cultivated fields, and 
there would be no grazing down to the 
bare ground, but all growth not taken 
off by the mowers for forage to feed 
and return to the soil in the manure 
could be plowed under for the benefit of 
the soil. While one can keep up the 
humus content in the land through 
legume crops aided by commercial 
fertilizers, and plowed under when ma¬ 
ture for humus-making direct, I believe 
that .this is a more costly method than 
feeding everything like roughage to 
stock, getting the feeding value first, 
knowing that a very large part of the 
manurial value of the feed can be re¬ 
covered in the droppings and returned 
to the land in a more available shape 
than if the crops are plowed under di¬ 
rect. 
A. W. S. says that he omits oats 
and plants potatoes. This I assume he 
does after a corn crop which the oats 
usually follow. I would therefore like 
to suggest that this gives him a chance 
greatly to increase the humus-making 
material in his soil by sowing Crimson 
clover among the corn, to make a 
Winter cover, and to be plowed under 
for the potatoes. This has become a 
very common practice in York County, 
and I believe that the crop would be 
equally successful in Dauphin County, 
Pa., where I assume A. W. S. means 
that he lives. One of the worst feat¬ 
ures in the Pennsylvania practice of 
sowing Spring oats after corn is the 
leaving of the corn stubble bare all 
Winter. Even if the Crimson clover 
did not survive the Winter, if sown in 
July it would make growth enough to 
pay, and rye scattered over it after 
the corn is cut would certainly sur¬ 
vive and help the Winter cover, and 
there is nothing like a cover of organic 
matter to turn in Spring for potatoes. 
Two years ago. when I was at the York 
County institutes I was pleased to see 
that every cornfield there was green 
with Crimson clover. At least this 
was the case in the southern part of 
<he county. I know another farmer in 
Lehigh Count}-, Pa., who has adopted 
the potato in place of oats in the rota¬ 
tion, and he makes enormous crops of 
them too. But he is a great believer 
in the value of legume crops, and al¬ 
ways has some such growth on his corn 
stubble for the potatoes. But while 
the grower of grain and potatoes 
need not be especially a stockman, 
every farmer must have a few 
cows at least for family use, and 
to consume profitably the roughage of 
the farm, and while using commercial 
fertilizers liberally and intelligently, he 
can make the cows the means for aiding 
the legumes in the maintenance of the 
humus in his soil. And this mainten¬ 
ance and increase of the humus is the 
keynote to all successful farming in 
any part of the country. Wear out the 
humus, either by hard grazing or con¬ 
stant clean cultivation and lack of 
Winter cover, and no matter what the 
rotation, the soil will fail in production. 
W. F. MASSEY. 
“Well, nurse, and how is our patient 
this morning?” “lie appears to be much 
improved this morning, doctor.” “Alive!” 
“Yes, sir; that medicine you said you 
were going to send out wasn’t delivered.” 
—Houston Post. 
The Judge: “Did you arrest this 
chauffeur for speeding?” The Police¬ 
man : “No, yer honor; I pulled ’im in fer 
obstructin’ tli’ road; he was goin’ only 
thirty miles an hour, an’ he was com¬ 
plained about by them that was riding 
at th’ regular rate."—Chicago News. 
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Box 100 M Batavia. New York 
Keep It Off The Cows 
Put It On The Fields 
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IfcBOll 
