The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1900-08-29
AGRICULTURAL.
Corn and Clover,

Of all the farm crops produced in
New England tbereare none that de-
serve more attention than corn and
clover. They should form a prominent
part of the rotation upon any farm
where crops are produced for feeding.
John Gould says in an exchange that
an acre of good silo corn, ears and all
fresh cut, weighs about fifteen tons.
OF this about three and a half tons is
digestible dry matter. In this fifteen
tons Of the complete crop there will be
about 100 pounds of actual plant food
taken from the soil direct. The main
part of the crop is carbon, taken from
the air, and in no way impoverishing
the soil. A fair acre of plough land in
its first eight inches contains two and a
half tons of natural nitrogen, two tons
of phosphoric acid, and anywhere from
six to sixteen tons of potash-enough
for untold crops. OF course the great
er part of this food is locked up, but is
comeatable with plenty Of soil mixing,
small additions of stable manure
in proper combination, now and then
dressing of twenty bushels of lime,
green catch crops to plough under, and
to make vegetable ferments in the soil
to help release the plant food elements
in the soil and make them awake to the
needs of the plants.
Here we have the case plainly. The
corn plant is trough rider" in secur-
ing fertility for itself. 1t stands drouth
we'll if given dust blanket in the hot
dry days. 1t has very few enemies
and stands grief better than any other
plant, while the clover is our most Wig
orous of forage plants and, moreover,
has wonderful power of getting nitro
gen supplies from the air, and so
doubly b bps the farmer, as he not only
gets his crop, but the land is left rich
er than before.
Not only does the corn crop improve
the soil, but it releases inert plant food
for the crop that follows, while the
meadow land in grass becomes more
compact, and actually becomes "bound
out" which is only another name for
smothering out the bacterial influ-
ences. The corn plant breaks up the
physical combinations that are locking
fertility up closer than ever, and the
"ten hundred OF hay to the acre" re-
suits, while the acre in silage repre-
sents the food of ten such acres. Yes,
raise corn, build silo, NOW less acres,
raise more cattle food to the acre at
home. An acre of good corn in the
silo supplies more food in the twelve
months than five acres of meadow and
pasture as commonly found.
In 1886 the writer set apart an acre
of common clay soil, and set out to as
certain how many paying crops could
be raised on that particular acre by till
age, without manure or fertilizers, 9TH
er than now and then a catch crop
plowed under. There has never been
a skip in the fourteen years, and the
corn last year was in amount and quail
ity the full equal of any that preceded
it. Usually after the crop was off the
land was sown TO oats and peas, which
were allowed to fall down in the winter
and act as protecting mulch. By
thorough culture and protecting catch
crops the weed problem solved itself,
and this is given as refutation of the
statement that corn will not follow it.
self as grain crop. There are no end
OF substitutes given as "better than
corn" but when the rounds have been
made, sorghum, pricky comfry, millets,
and the like, still none of them equal
corn or better balance the ration. So
when we yoke red clover and corn to-
gether in the rotation and in feed COM
bination, we have farm-produced food
which for amount of nutritious food
and amount to the acre are not equaled
in amount by any other, and if harvest
ed by up-to-date methods has no equal
as an economical and digestible food.
True, some bran and gluten will be
needed, but they are foods that are not
consumed in digestion, and are worth
so per cent Of their cost value as ma
nure after forming part of the ration.