The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1896-08-20
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FORAGE CROPS.

cessfuIly Cultivated.
The following good article was
awarded the second premium in n
prize essay contest Of the Michigan
Farmer, calling for the best written
essay on the subject of forage crops.
The writer is Alfred Anderson of Mus
kegon county Michigan.
What substitute for hay and forage
shall we be able to plant as late as
h 10th of June, with no present pre-
paratiOn for same. and indications of
a dry season as the last mi of 1895?
Whatever is done must be done in a
hurry. The first thing l would do
would be to prepare a piece of land
for corn, as there Is. at the above date,
plenty of time for maturing a crop of
corn. The season of 1894 l planted
the 9th day of June, and from nine
acres harvested 500 bushels of good
corn.
l would select a sandy loan soil,
as there would not be much use of
attempting to prepare clay ground at
this time of year. Stubble land, or
some that had been recently plowed,
would be more likely to contain more
moisture and give corn a better start
than sod land. But in case 1 could do
no better / would plow sod about six
or seven inches deep, then roll and
drag thoroughly.
With the ground we'll fitted, I would
drill sweet corn in rows about three
feet nine inches apart and about four
or five inches apart in the drill. Gull
tivate and work the same as for a
crop. Then l would look the farm
over for a piece of moist land, a piece
Of low bottom land, or reclaimed
swamp, and SOW some millet, and If
this is harvested at the proper time
before it gets too ripe it will make an
excellent article Of hay, especially for
milk cows.
Rye would be the next substitute,
principally for forage, and I think
likely it could be made to produce
| fodder by sowing as soon as possible
after June 10. AS to the quality of
| rye cut for fodder, I think it is nearly
as good as timothy hay. Cut with the
binder just about the time it blossoms.
Rye, l think, stands at head of for
age plants. l would commence by
sowing the wheat stubble as soon after
harvest as possible, and then in the
| corn at the last time of cultivating.
The pastures we will now suppose to
be getting rather short. We are now
past the middle of July and our first
planting of fodder corn, which should
ha, been planted about May 20. viii.
soon he ready to commence feeding.
If we have planned our planting
right we may have ar abundance of
corn fodder up to Oct. I, when we
may m en turning I'm on the rye,
which will show it's worth in the in
creased flow of milk and with fatter
stock to commence the winter.
For sheep raising, and these dry
seasons, rye Is almost indispensable,
furnishing feed the entire season If
managed rightly, provided the winter
is open and the first thing in the
spring when some green feed is need
ed so badly for ewes in lamb. We
may now pasture the rye till about
the list of May, then if we wish to Sc
cure a crop or cut for hay and turr
under for green manure, the stock car
be taken off which will give it q
chance to make ample growth for
crop.
The past few seasons have demon
strated the fact that we cannot de
pend upon pasture land for stock
1t matters not how many acres w,
have in pasture, when the terrible
drought of summer strikes it, it il
waste land, sc that all the use we re
ceive from our pasture land is abou
two months out of the year.
SO it seems that the present methot
Of pasturing stock is expensive in NOR
ways than one. First in not %receivin,
-.-a. r,or,1 1-r Land M.
second by losing in quality of on
stock and shrinking of milk in on
dairy herds, which means not onl,
the present loss of milk but the futur
also.
1t seems to me that the more econ
omical and remunerative way woul,
be the stabling of stock through tn
summer, thereby keeping more stocl
on half the number of acres. The sill
would, no doubt, fill a gap here tina
we could not dispense with, if follow
ing this method.
With the silo and feeding of stoc'
throughout the entire year, we coul
depend more largely On cultivate
crops such as would be suitable 70
ensilage, and the various root crops
thereby securing ourselves against tn
ulOuSllS VI SuIlillCi, uhu SiNihS u
more tillable land, also an increase
amount of manur to enrich Our sol
How n Good Crop Was Raised.
Mr.. J. A.. Baxter, of Waverlan(
Kansas, raised 104 bushels of corn pc
acre on five acres last winter las f
acre on five acres last season, and j
the March report of the Kansas Stat
Board of Agriculture he tells how h
did it, as follows:
The portion of my crop giving yiel
of 104 bushels of husked, well drie
(~ifty-six pounds, shelled) corn per acl
, was five acres of fifty-seven l plante
last year. My land is. slightly rollin
prairie and about a fair average Kal
sas soil. with a hard, impreviOus SUI
soil. The five acres mentioned we
at one end of a twenty-tive-acre fiel
part of which had been in potatoes fl
!, two years, and the last crop dug wit
a listing plow late in October, whit
was about equivalent to a deep ia
blowing.
In spring the ground was much lii
a bed of ashes. 1t was then deep
plowed, made fine and smooth with
> plank drag and drilled the first WEE