The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1896-04-30
OUR AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.
Notes by Professor w. A. Henry, of Madi-
son, Wis.

comes from Warren Walker, Black
Earth, Dane county:
I" / aesire information concerning the
raising of Kaffir corn in this vicinity.
Will it prove a profitable crop for fod
der? What is your experience withit?o
Kaffir corn is a variety of sorghum
which produces stalks without any
sweet juice, but with seeds somewhat
larger than ordinary sorghum seeds. It
has proved a valuable plant in the
semi arid region of Texas, Kansas and
South Dakota, where it does better
than corn because it will grow with less
moisture. While Kaffir corn can be
grown in Wisconsin, | do not recon-
mend it's general use, for the reason
that a crop of Indian corn can be pro-
duced with less labor and larger re-
turns.
Every farmer who has had expert
ence in raising sorghum for syrup knows
that the crop is more troublesome to
grow than corn, because the young
sorghum plants are so small when they
first spring up that they are apt to be
much troubled by weeds, while corn
plants are much stronger and soon get
beyond weed troubles. A good crop of
Kafir corn will return from thirty to
forty bushels of seed per acre, while
Indian corn under the same conditions
would give considerably larger returns.
English sparrows raid the fields of
Kaffir corn at the west, often destroy
ing much of the crop, while they can
not hurt Indian corn.
Supt. McKerrow, of the Institutes,
tells me that he tried Kaffir corn be-
side Indian corn, and secured only
about one-half as much grain; this tai
lies with our experience at the Station
and leads me to advise farmers in this
state to generally pay no attention to
this novelty which is SO much adver-
tised this season. The same amount of
energy spent On Indian corn will give
better returns.
CRIMSON CLOVER.
Probably twenty letters have come
to the Station this spring inquiring
about crimson clover. This plant is an
annual. If sown in the spring it will
mature it's seed and die, yielding one or
two tons of hay per acre. If sown in
the fall in localities where the winters
are mild, as in. Delaware and North
Carolina, it lives over Wicter just as
winter wheat does with us and runs to
seed the following summer in May.
Crimson clover is highly appreciated
by orchardists and gardeners for en-
riching the land.
We have tried crimson clover sever
al times at this Station with results al
ways in favor of medium red clover. bIf
farmers will SOW red clover seed by it.
self, as they must do with crimson clo-
yer, they will get in all ordinary years
a very fair crop of hay the first season
fully as much as from crimson clover,
and the plants will live over the winter
to make full crop of hay the second
summer, while the crimson clover under
the same conditions will be dead.
Only yesterday walked over our
and could not find a single plant living
all were dead. We will experiment
further, and if any good results can be
obtained they will be reported to our
Wisconsin readers.
If writing for Delaware or North
Carolina farmers, should talk differ
emily about crimson clover.
RAISE GOOD COLTS THIS YEAR.
In farming operations we are apt to
run to extremes. A few years ago
every mare that could raise a colt was
bred and the business of horse raising
enlarged as rapidly as possible, both
on farms in the east and especially on
the great plains Of the west. AS re-
suit of this expansion, and because of
the great changes in transportation due
to electricity and the bicycle, the horse
market has been seriously depressed
and horsemen much discouraged for
the last few years. With the depres-
sion has come the destruction of i'm
mense numbers of horses which were
ordinarily saved for work or breeding
Added to this is the other fact, and a
most important one, that there has not
been over one colt in the last two years
where there were three few years
ago.,
While | concede that no one has the
ability to accurately forecast the fu-
ture, | ask is it not reasonable that
good horses will bring good prices at
no distant day? Conceding all the
claims for electricity and the bicycle,
there is still vast field which must
and can be occupied only by the horse.
Experience on the western plains shows
that good, heavy draft horses and car
riage horses OF fine quality cannot be
bred with any satisfaction there, and
we are more sure than ever that horses
of this class must hereafter come from
the farms of the Mississippi valley and
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