The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1908-12-11

-SN app % III VIC III W leu
by July l, and successive seedlings,
even up to July on low land, will
furnish green feed until September l.
IL the later seedlings must he omitted
for lack of suitable land, green corn
planted May Is will fill the gap until
the frost comes. Barley sown from
June 20 to August Is in successive
lots will furnish feed for September
and October. Under any other cir
cumstances than those described it
does not seem economical to follow
this system, for summer feeding Of
silage saves the daily labor. of cut
ting and hauling green crop on any
farm where there is land enough to
use for growing good clover hay in
a rotation with silage corn.
The methods which are to be gen.
orally recommended to dairymen in
New England for the producing of
feed apply equally to much Of the
State OF New York, at least to all the
eastern portion of it. They are brief
ly as follows:
In the first place, ell land which
can be used at all in such a manner
should be kept in a short rotation,
not more than three or four or, at
the most, five years long. This
should bring the time which any
piece of land is used for hay before
replowing down to two or three years
at the most. This short rotation
gives more clover in the hay, since
clover is short lived, only good for
two years from the time of seeding
at best. The clover not only i'm
proves the quality of the hay, but
when hay is grown for three years,
increases the yield of the hay crop for
a year after the clover is gone If
cut for hay only two years, the clover
materially aids the yield of corn or
other crop which immediatel..- fol-
lows it.
If, as is often the case, a good
catch OF clover is not easily obtained,
the land should be lined, for too
much acidity in the soil seems TO be
the greatest drawback to clover cul-
ture in New England. Land plaster,
wood ashes, or fertilizers containing
much potash contribute 10 the same
end. The only precaution to be OBJ
served is in the case of a farm where
potatoes are an important crop, for
then one must be cautious about linn
ing; potato scab may thereby be in
creased. In that case a fertilizer
| bi01, in oh f0
potatoes, does much to improve the
clover crop.
Some or ell of the soiling crops
mentioned are frequently desirable
to fill gaps, and when silage or hay
is scarce they may be desirable to
feed all summer, along with silage.
1t should be remembered, however,
that the use of a soilinS sy II for
| the whole season is not, as q rulc, ad.
visable on account of the labor in
volved. Wherever it is possible tc
grow corn the silo should be depend
ed upon, not only for winter feeding
but for the entire twelve months in
the year in case pasture is scarce or
poor in quality. 1t is the cheapest
way to get succulent summer feed if
the land is not at all limited in area
| or il the pastures are not suck as to
produce good feed in dry weather.
In parts of Massachusetts, large milk
producers consider that it costs one
cent quart more to produce milk
without silage than with it.
Tho aIiaf din;o,,Itv ct
lage corn in northern New Englond
is in getting a suitable variety, and
farmers are strongly urged to take
advantage of such new varieties Of
silage corn as may be offered for trial
by the agricultural experiment sta.
tons of their respective States or by
the United States Department of Ag.
riculture, and also to select their own
seed in order to improve it.
In the most northern sections, such
as northern Maine, where corn is out
of the question and potatoes fill the
place of corn in a rotation, silage
can still be made from Japanese mil.
let or other crops and succulent win.
ter feed thus provided. Glover and
Italian rye grass are successfully used
for silage in the State of Washing.
ton. This combination is worthy OF
trial in northern Maine.
1t should be noted that all, or near.
/ ~ all, of the cropping systems that
have been mentioned here are de.
pendent on different variations of one
|
may compose the system on any farm.
and one rotation may follow anoth.
err on the same field, or different
fields may be used continuously in
I different rotations. The rotations
however, are based on the one Sc
common in many localities-that is.
corn, small grain, grass. Corn ray
be replaced by potatoes, and that is
very profitably done in the potato
| districts or in the most northern
counties of New England, where corr
fails. The small grain may be left
cut and the grass (and clover) seed
ed in the corn, or corn may be grown
two years, instead of one.
The number of years of hay grow
ing may vary from one to Eve, and
the small grains may be used as grain
or go to supplement or enrich the
supply of hay. Even the rotations
for soiling system are usually based
on the same foundation, the crops
for soiling coming after corn. two oil
them frequently being grown in a
year, and then the land put back to