The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-05-22
BOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS
 C O M NIFTY CENTERS
More Silage
By KoLB PERKINS

it has long been the practice of many, armers to plant some legume with their 'egular crop of corn at some stage of Us growth, but very few farmers have
 sver tried planting legumes with their s@ssiiage corn. At the Tennessee experi- FEnent station it was found that the
 amount of silage an acre of ground would |Fproduce could be increased by sorghum |Hwtn corn instead of corn alone. Sor- $snum Will make more silage on an acre
 of soil than corn, but the product will not De as good as corn silage. So, when the two crops are sliced together, whether they are grown together or not the sor- ghum increases the feeding value of the sorghum. Corn, of course, is king of sil- age crops. However, there is hardly eanything grown on the farm that might not be sliced, but some crops would show Ftno profit when sliced. Siloing crops is profitable only because it enables us to | preserve crops for future use with the
 minimum waste, and there are some crops
 that may be saved in more economical
 manners than by siloing, and with about Z fthe same waste, it would be unprofit- Nabie to make silage of these crops Our inner legume hays came in this class. some of the coarser legumes, however, Hare extremely profitable when sliced in 4connection with corn and sorghum, espe- F x right with the corn and sorghum so that f they both may be cut at the same tme f It is probably better to make hay of even S the coarser legumes if they have been s grown to themselves that they would E nave to be- cut separa tely. However if e You especially wish to increase the pro- 6 ten content of your siage, a small pro- : portion of legumes added to the corn or ]. sorghum will do it, no matter how ] grown.
 Of the summer legumes. it seems that 3 soy beans are best for planting with sil- z age corn. They will make no more than 4 cowpeas, but are better adapted to mak- < ing into siiage in connection with corn | or sorghum Velvet beans may also be < grown in the gulf states The method of
 planting these legumes with the silage corn is to wait until about the second cultivation of the corn and drop the seed in the corn TOW, if the corn is not too
 thick, or if it is thick, on the side of the row, and then cover them by giv- ing the corn it's regular cultivation 1t will take almost a peck of seed to plant
 an acre. If the legumes could injure the corn to any extent by robbing it of mois- ture we might say that this is heavy
 seeding, but it is fact that these sum-
 mer legumes put their roots down deep
 below the regular feeding ground of corn
 ard do not Seed in the same manner as
 corn at all For instance the corn needs
 great stores of nitrogen to make a good
 yield. while these lesumes will make good
 where the nitrogen content of the soil is
 negligible.
 After the legumes are planted the corn
 should he cultivated in the regular way.
 Only an experienced man can tell what
 to expect as silage yield from corn and
 SOY beans, or other legumes. Roughly,
 we can expect a ton of good siiage from
 corn alone, for each bushel of dry corn
 the soil would produce. In the extreme
 st uth, where corn grows tall and rank,
 we may expect more than ton of silage
 for each five bushels of dry corn such
 land will produce, for it will not produce
 much in dry years. In fact, the slo is
 ifdespensable here to save corn that F
 struck by drouths at critical times. s These figures being for corn alone, it is
 Reasonable to expect the legumes to in-
 riease the tonnage of siage gotten from
 m acre of soil. Soy beans for instance will make two tons of hay on poor soil
 Wfen planted by themselves. When plant
 ed with corn they should make at least
 two tons of silage, on ordinary soils
 Fhere is another benefit from legumes
 grown with corn; when the whole is cut
 the legumes sprout out again unless the
 season is too far advanced, and make
 good grazing. Besides. the legumes bring
 huge stores of nitrogen to the soil in their
 roots. which are left to decay in the soil