The practice of sowing grains for fodder has been practised with great
success. MILLET is sown in May, June, or July, at the rate of three
pecks of seed to the acre. It is, usually, ready for the scythe in
about ninety days. Thick sowing is best. Cut when the grain is fairly
out of the milk, and cure it like hay. Four tons is a fair yield—two
tons is a small crop.
INDIAN CORN should be sown broadcast at the rate of four to five
bushels to the acre. Corn belongs to the tribe of _grasses_.
Cultivating it for the grain, in rows, with every stimulant of air,
light, and manure, develops the stalk almost to a tree form. When sown
for fodder, the object should be to produce it, as nearly as possible,
like a _grass_. Thick sowing will tend to do it, and each stalk being
small and tender, the crop will be easily masticated by cattle. By
good management six or eight tons may be cut to the acre—cutting twice
in the season. The first mowing should be about the period of
_silking_. The next, whenever the shoots have grown again to a proper
size. If but one mowing is intended, it should be permitted to stand a
week or two later than when two crops are to be taken. For, all plants
prepare the most of nutritious juices at the period of their
_fruiting_. Indian corn is the richest in saccharine matter at about
the time its grain is turning from a milky to a mealy state. Cattle
will eat either of the above grains, treated like a grass crop, with
great avidity; and every one knows that it is desirable to give them a
_change_ of food through the winter.