VOL. LXIV
INDIANAPOLIS, JUNE 5, 1909.
NO. 22
Supplementary Forage Crops.
By reason of the extremely dry summer of last year, many meadows were
burned out, and many farmers this
spring rind their prospects for a hay
crop rather discouraging. It also frequently happens that a farmer has too
much live stock for his pasture land,
and additional forage crops are necessary to carry them through the summer. Many inquiries relative to the
above conditions are being received at
this station, and in order to answer
gome  ssi   these,  this bulletin is written.
Leguminous crops are always desir-
:ilala> because of their protein content
ansl their beneficial effect on the soil.
For Indiana the following leguminous
crisps   may  be   recommended:
1. Clovers may be sown in spring
as late as May 1 and summer and autumn pasture be obtained. The small
red and mammoth clovers are best
suited for such purpose. They may
be sown with or without a nurse crop
at the rate of eight or 10 pounds of
sa ed per acre. If fhe sowing is late,
the seed should be covered by harrowing.
2. Canadian field peas and oats.—
This crop may be sown from early
spring to tive middle of May. By making sowings at Intervals of two weeks,
<a succession of crops may be had.
The common rate of sowing is one and
one-half bushels of eaeh per acre. The
las-as are usually scattered broadcast
on disked or harrowed ground and then
turned under about three or four inches
deep. The ground is then harrowed
and the oats drilled a few days later.
The land may first be prepared and
each crop drilled separately, but this is
not usually as satisfactory as the other
method.
Peas and oats are good for hay, or
to cut and feed green. When the oats
are heading and the peas blossoming,
one may begin to cut for green fead.
For hay the oats should be in the milk
stage and the peas should have well
formed pods. Peas and oats can also
be pastured to advantage with hogs.
This crop will give a yield of five to
seven tons per acre of green weight.
3. Cow Peas.—This crop is excel-
ls nt for hay, green feed or hog pasture.
Land should be prepared as for corn,
and the seed sown after corn planting,
or in southern Indiana, after wheat
harvest. Sowing in rows and cultivating is the preferable method. If
sowed in rows 32 inches apart, cultivation can be given with a corn cultivator. A grain drill (not a forcefeed)
with the holes not needed stopped up,
is a good machine for sowing the seed.
Set the indicator at two bushels peracre
fssr wheat. Such sowing will require
abiaut ons'-half bushel of seed per acre;
if sowed broadcast or with all drill
holes open, one bushel of seed per acre
is required.
Cow peas are cut for hay, or pastures], when some of the early pods are
beginning to ripen. Fur green feed
they should be cut—somewhat sooner.
From six to eight tons or more per aere
of green weight can Ise ssbtained. The
Whippoorwill variety is most generally
grown. The Clay, Ked  Ripper, Iron,
Michigan Favorite and New Era are also good varieties; the last named being
a good seed producer.
4. Soy beans.—The method of preparing   the   land,   ruts'   and   method   of
ssiwing, and cultivation are the same
for soy beans as for cow peas. Soy
beans make good hay for sheep and
cattle, if cut when the pods are two-
thirds grown. If hogs are turned on
when the leaves are beginning to turn
yellow, they will harvest the crop to
advantage. Many farmers cut the
beans as soon as the leaves show signs
of ripening, cure the crop, and store
it for feeding to hogs in the winter.
Soy beans are most often harvested as
a grain crop, threshed, and the grain
ground for feeding. The Early Brown,
Ito San, and Hollybrook are some of
the  best varieties. Soy    beans    will
Plants the same as corn. When  the
heads begin to swell in the "boot," the
Ripe sorgummay be cutand shockedfor
winter feeding. Sorgum may also be
sown broadcast thickly and cut for hay.
Sorgum will yield about 10 tons per
acre of green weight.
3. Corn.—Corn is also an excellent
supplementary forage crop. Plant
the same as for the ordinary crop.
The period of use may be lengthened
by using sweet corn or an early maturing variety or dent corn for early cutting. Feeding may begin as soon as
roasting ears luivc formed. Corn
drilled  thickly or sowed solidly with  a
Farm Home of F. C. Reser,  Howard County.
make about the same yield of green
weight as cow peas, and will yield
from 15 to 25 bushels of seed per acre. '
Of the non-leguminous crops the following are good:
1. Rape.—This is essentially a lass-,'
snd sheep pasture. ' Land should be
Prepared early by deep plowing ans! th•?
seed sown about May 1, either in drills
or broadcast. Small lots may be sowed with a hand drill in rows 24 or 32
inches apart and cultivated. TJiis
method requires about two pounds of
seed per acre. Set the drill for turnips. Broadcast sowing requires about
four pounds of seed. If sown with
a thin seeding of oats, the rape plants
will come on after the oats is cut and
produce considerable pasture. Rape
is also sown with corn at the last cultivation for fall pasture.
When the plants are about 12 inches
high, they are large enough to be pastured. If they are not pastured too
close, they will make a second growth.
The use of hurdles is recommended.
Care should be taken not to pasture
whs n the plants are wet with dew, as
pigs' ears become chafed and sore, and
sheep are likely to bloat. One acre
of rape will support from 20 to 30
animals for two months.
2. Sorgum.—No other crop will fur-
: ish so much succulent and nutritious
food per acre as sorgum. Prepare the
land as for corn and sow after corn
planting time. Sow in rows 32 inches
apart, using a grain drill set at less
than one bushel per acre for wbeat.
This will require about one-half bushel
ss ssl  per acre. Cultivate  the  young
grain  drill  is  fodder  corn  and  may   Iss
cut for hay.
.4. Millet.—On good soil millet fur-
nishss a heavy yield of fair hay. It
may be sown from the middle of May
to the  middle   of    July. The     land
should be plowed or disked and well
pulverized. The seed is sown broad
cast an dharrowed in, using about a
half bushel of seed per acre. In about
60 days from seeding, millet is ready
to cut. Cutting should be done just
as the blossoms fall. If the hay is to
be used for horses, care should be taken that seed does not form. The Common, German, Hungarian, and Japanese Barnyard are the varieties most
recommended; the last named should
be sown only on moist, rich soils. The
millets will yield as much as four tons
of hay per acre under favorable conditions.
M. L. Fisher,
Assistant Agriculturist at Purdue Agri-
cutural  Experiment Station.
Plan to Reduce Road  Widths.
Consul Thompson, of Hanover, Germany, contributes some valuable comments on the roads of Prussia as com-
pared with those of the United Statea.
The German roads, he says, range from
20 to 30 feet in width, while In our
Middle or Western States, we take
lansl of an average value of $100 per
acre and cut it up with roadways 66
feet wide, practically two-thirds of the
same being given over to weeds, which
furnish an inexhaustible supply of seeds
for  the   adjoining  farm   lands. The
farmer of Germany who has conquered
the weeds on his ground need have no
thought of their being started again
from uncultivated or uncared-for land
along   the   roadways. Looking   into
the valleys from one of the thousands
of lookout towers which have been
placed on the summit of nearly every
high elevation in Germany, the roads
lie before one's view like bright white
ribbons runing past squares of green or
brown lields, along the verges of cultivated woods, and binding village to
village—a solution of the first and most
important problem of human economy
ami   evolution,  that  of transportation.
One of the simplest and most practical measures that could be taken for
American roads betterment would be to
reduce their width to from one-third to
one-half of what they are now. Work
could then be concentrated on the
roadway and drains, and both building
and maintenance of roads become
much less expensive.
No road can be called really good if
it is bordered with weeds or mud, and
to care for and keep up a road from
60 to 70 feet in width, not to mention
the loss of land, means in the long
run -nearly double the expense of a 30
or 35 foot road.
The average width of the first class
highway in Prussia is 30 feet, and is
found to be ample for all purposes. Reducing the width of public highways in
but thirteen Mississippi Valley States,
aggregating 700,000 miles, which now
average 66 feet, to 36 feet, leaving them
still much wider than the highways of
Prussia, Mr. Thompson shows would
give back to the farmers of those States
for cultivation, 2,500,000 acres of generally tillable land, which, at an average valuation of $100 per acre would
mean the restoration to the producing
values of the States named of $250,-
000,000. This sum has an annual interest value of $12,500,000, an amount
which might be recovered, and if applied to the proper scientific construction ssl' roads in the United States would
in a few years give us the most extensive and finest country road system in
ths- world. G. E. M.
Washington, D. C.
—This might do very well but for the
autos, though we prefer a 60 foot to a
30 foot roadway if we can afford the
spues', and the road can be kept clear
of weeds and other rubbish. But what
kind of a chance would the driver of a
skittish horse or any other kind of a
horse in fact but a worn-out plug, in
trying to pass a big machine on a 30
foot highway? So long as autos are
allowed to use our common roads the
roads should remain as wide as now,
and the improvement should extend
from fence to fence, the outer 10 feet
on each side being made by the auto
owners.
Our Fruit Prospect.
As indicated by recent reports re-
ceived by Mr. James M. Zion, the apple
specialist of Tippecanoe county, the
present  conditions  indicate:
Winter apples, 20 per cent; summer
apples, 25 per cent; cherries, 40 per
cent; plums, 40 per cent; pears, 25 per
cent;   peaches, 80 per cent.
The great fall drouth was very disastrous to all pasture lands, clover and
timothy meadows, making both grazing
and hay. products in great demand and
at   largely   increased   prices. There
will be but little clover hay throughout
the entire drouth belt.