Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/403

Rh FORAGE CROPS.] AGRICULTURE 377 the best ; for if the weeds are kept in check until the crop is fairly established, they have no chance of getting up afterwards. With a thin crop of vetches, on the other hand, the land is so certain to get foul, that they should at once be ploughed down, and something else put in their place. As vetches are in the best state for use when the seeds begin to form in the pods, repeated sowings are made at intervals of three weeks, beginning by the end of February, or as early in March as the season admits, and continuing till May. The usual practice in Scotland has been to sow vetches on part of the oat break, once ploughed from lea. Sometimes this does very well, but a far better plan is to omit sowing clover and grass seeds on part of the land occupied by wheat or barley after turnips, and having ploughed that portion in the autumn to occupy it with vetches, putting them instead of &quot;seeds&quot; for one revolution of the course. When vetches are grown on poor soils, the most pro fitable way of using them is by folding sheep upon them, a practice very suitable also for clays, upon which a root crop cannot safely be consumed in this way. A different course must, however, be adopted from that followed when turnips are so disposed of. When sheep are turned in upon a piece of tares, a large portion of the food is trodden down and wasted. Cutting the vetches and putting them into racks does not much mend the matter, as much is still pulled out and wasted, and the manure unequally dis tributed over the land. To avoid those evils, hurdles with vertical spars, betwixt which the sheep can reach with head and neck, are now used. These are set close up to the growing crop along a considerable stretch, and shifted for ward as the sheep eat up what is within their reach. This requires the constant attention of the shepherd, but the labour is repaid by the saving of the food, which being always fresh and clean, does the sheep more good. A modification of this plan is to use the same kind of hurdles, but instead of shifting them as just described, to mow a swathe parallel to them, and fork this forward within reach of the sheep as required, repeating this as often during the day as is found necessary, and at night moving the sheep close up to the growing crop, so that they may lie for the next twenty-four hours on the space which has yielded food for the past day. During the night they have such pickings as have been left on the recently-mown space, and so much of the growing crop as they can get at through the spars. There is less labour by this last mode than the other, and having practised it for many years we know that it answers well. This folding upon vetches is suitable either for finishing off for market sheep that are in forward condition, or for recently-weaned lambs, which, after five or six weeks folding on this clean, nutritious herbage, are found to take on more readily to eat turnips, and to thrive better upon them, than if they had been kept upon the pastures all the autumn. Sheep folded upon vetches must have water always at command, otherwise they will not prosper. As spring-sown vetches are in perfection at the season when pastures usually get dry and scanty, a common practice is to cart them on to grass land and spread them out in wisps, to be eaten by the sheep or cattle. It is, however, much better either to have them eaten by sheep where they grow, or to cart them to the homestead. Section 7. Beans. The common field bean has not hitherto been recog nised as an available forage plant. Mr Mechi has, we believe, the merit of first showing its great value for this purpose. In the hot dry summer of 1868, when pastures utterly failed, and men were at their wits end how to keep their stock in life, he had recourse to his bean crop, then at its full growth, and its green pods filled with soft pulse. His plan of using it was, to mow the needed quantity daily, pass it through a chaff-cutter, and then send it out in troughs to his sheep in their pastures, and to his cattle in their stalls. The quantity of green food per acre yielded by a full crop of beans when used in this way is very great, and probably exceeds that of any other crop we grow. As Mr Mechi observed, on first announcing his practice, &quot; no farmer need to be at a loss for food for his live stock who has a crop of beans at command.&quot; We know that many farmers availed themselves of this seasonable hint with the very best results. That pre-eminently successful grazier, Mr William M Combie, M.P., Tillyfour, has, in his instructive pamphlet, shown how useful it is to have a few acres of mixed beans, peas, and tares ready to give to cattle in forward condition in the month of August, by laying down to them daily on their pastures a supply of this very palatable and nourishing forage. By this ex pedient they make rapid progress at a season when they would lose the condition they had already gained if left dependent on the then failing pasturage. We can testify from experience that we never have our cattle make such rapid progress on any kind of food as when thus supplied with green pulse on autumn pastures. Section 8. Mustard. After a crop of vetches has been consumed, if the season is too far advanced to admit of turnips being sown, it is not unusual to take a crop of white mustard or crimson clover. By means of the crops now enumerated, the practice of soiling can be carried out in all cases where it is practicable. There are other valuable crops of this kind, several of which we shall now describe ; but their culture is either limited by their requirements in regard to soil and climate, or attended with too great expense to admit of their com peting with those already described. Section 9. Sainfoin. This very important forage plant would be well entitled to a more prominent place in our list but for the circum stance that it is only on dry calcareous soils that its excellences are fully developed ; and to these, accordingly, its culture may be said to be confined. In all the chalk districts of England sainfoin occupies an important place in the rotation of crops. Referring to the chalky downs round Ilsley in Berks, Mr Caird says : &quot; About a tenth part of the land is kept under sainfoin, in which it remains for four years, being each year cut for hay, of which it gives an excellent crop. A farmer having 40 acres of sainfoin sows out 10 acres and breaks up 10 acres annually. This goes regularly over the whole farm, the sainfoin not returning on the same field for considerable intervals, and when its turn comes round the field receives a rest of four years from the routine of cultivation. It is then ploughed up in spring, and sown with oats on one furrow, the crop of which is generally excellent, as much as 80 bushels an acre not being uncommon.&quot; l The seed, at the rate of 4 bushels per acre, is drilled in immediately after barley or oats has been sown, working the drill at right angles to its course when it deposited the grain. It is frequently pastured for one or more years before being mown either for green forage or for hay. It is sometimes allowed to stand for eight or ten years, but the plan described in the above quotation is the more approved one. A variety called giant sainfoin has been introduced by Mr Hart of Ashwell, Herts. As compared with the common sort it is more rapid in its growth in 1 Caird s English Agriculture, p. 1!4 L48