The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-25
Small Grain for winter pasture.

small LOT w
For several years past dry autumns have
been the rule, and it is now that we have
had favorable weather for blowing land
and sowing small grains in September and
October.
Many farmers have become almost dis
couraged from the frequent failures to Sc
cure a stand of grain, and growth enough
to enable it to withstand the early Janua-
~ freezes. Several crops have been so
delayed in the seeding until too late in No
vember the young plants were not root
ed enough and furnished so little mulch
TO the soil TO enable the young crops to
withstand the January cold. A good many
seem TO have come to the conclusion that
the seasons have made a dead set against
fall sown grain, and that the practice
might as well be given up, and if one
sows grain at all, to abide by the ancient
rule of late January, or early February
soWings.
If we cannot SOW small grain by the 25th
of October, or by 11th of November at the
extreme, and with moisture enough in the
soil to terminate the seed at once, at those
dates it does seem waste of seed and
labor to sow later than that as a general
rule. Now and then we have a winter
like 1881, when November sown oats grew
along through December almost like
they would have done in April, but such
a winter has not been repeated since.
Eighteen hundred and eighty-two was the
greatest grain year of Georgia.
Now to have such a pasture as is styled
winter pasture where mich cows and
calves can be turned into it by the 1st of
December, anyhow by the Goth, the SOW
ing must be made in September, or by the
10th of December at the latest.
The first good season in September
should be taken advantage of, and the
oats or the mixture that we shall suggest
sowed and plowed in while the earth
has enough moisture to bring the seed up
at once.
We specify milch cows and calves, be-
cause if any stock deserve to be cared
for it is these. To keep the cows in full
flow of milk at a season when butter is
worth something, it is worth the care and
trouble to provide rich, succulent food for
them. For this purpose a mixture Of
grains is better than any single grain. The
pasture is likely to be better, more last
ing from having the grain mixed. A mix
ture of thirty pounds oats, twenty pounds
barley, fifteen pounds rye ten pounds
wheat, plowed in with from 800 to 400
pounds cotton seed made during first good
season after Sept. l, will ordinarily delight
the heart of the owner of it, About
Christmas time the wheat may be left
out without any great disadvantage, but
it is well enough to include it. The finest
winter and spring pasture we ever had or
ever saw, was in a case where these grains
were sown in two-foot rows, and the grain
swept twice during October.
II was a magnificent sight at Christmas
time, and the total product of the one acre
by the 1st of June was at a low valuation
worth $780,
1t supplied that much stock food from
Dec. l to June l. 1t was barley in one
row, wheat in the next, rye in the next,
and oats in the fourth row, and thus re-
peated until the acre was sown.
Thirty bushels of killed cotton seeds was
applied in the soil. BY Dec. 20 1t was
knee high and covered the middles en-
tlrely. For economy's sake, it was cut
and fed to stock in their stalls, instead
of being pastured. Stock should be turned
on such a pasture only when the soil
is dry and then only for thirty or forty
minutes daily, toward noon. Often the
green grain has been warm up. BY allow
ing stock to stay on il only long enough
10 get a fill, it will not be trampled to
death, and will endure through the win
tiers. In wet weather it should be cut
and fed to stock in their stables. On rich
land broadcast sowing will secure fine
pasture, but on medium land, if this mixed
grain is sown in rs or 24-inch drills, with
The cotton seed meal applied in the drills
with the seed and the middles cultivated
two or three times, the growth will be
more rapid and easier to cut. Expert
ence as to the value of the plan warrants
this suggestion.