80 Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. [Feb. 2, 1920. 



The Risk. — The alluvial soil in the creek valleys of the upper reaches of 

 the Richmond River is exceedingly fertile and, given a decent rainfall, 

 produces summer and winter fodders of exceptional luxuriance. AVhen 

 the rainfall falls far below the average, the crops are correspondingly light. 

 At The Risk, and in the Kyogle district generally, the past season has been 

 as drv as elsewhere, and the vields of o;reen winter fodder high for such adverse 

 conditions. Heavy frosts also were experienced, three consecutive ones of 

 exceptional severity destroying the plots of field peas and causing a con- 

 siderable check to the cereals. The greatest bulk of fodder was harvested 

 from the oat plots, Algerian heading the list with a yield of 10 tons to the 

 acre, with Sunrise 12 cwt. behind, but over a ton in advance of Ruakura. 

 Thew wheat yielded very well, Cleveland proving the next best, and the 

 remainder showing a decided falling off. 



In the manurial trial with Thew wheat, sown 19th April, the greatest 

 increase attended the use of P8, which yielded 17 cwt. more than the 

 unmanured plot. Although all fertilised plots gave increases, the difference 

 was not sufficient to pay for the cost and cartage of the manure applied. 

 It must be remembered, however, that the season was an abnormally dry 

 one, and the soil a fertile alluvial loam, where big increases could not be 

 expected, particularly as it is comparatively newly cultivated, and retains 

 much of its virgin fertility. 



Summary. 



Trials of winter fodders have been conducted by the Department in 

 co-operation with North Coast farmers for the last ten years, with a view 

 of popularising their cultivation and determining the most suitable crop or 

 combination of crops for the production of winter feed. The results to date 

 have proved beyond doubt that there are a variety of feeds that can be grown 

 successfully and economically, even in an abnormal season such as the one 

 under review. 



It is extraordinary that despite the oft-repeated recommendations and 

 experimentation of the Department, so few farmers grow winter fodders, 

 or, for that matter, fodder of any kind in sufficient quantity for their dairy 

 stock. The result is inevitable — a dry tiine comes, the grass paddocks give 

 •out, and' the herd has to be fed on hay, chaff, &c., at ruinous })rices, or — as 

 was the bitter experience of many this season- — not at all. In the majority 

 of cases the growth of fodders would have meant the salvation of the herd, 

 and substantial cream cheques instead of big feed bills, for there are very 

 few farms that have not the requisite cultivation to produce at some time 

 of the year some form of fodder that could be conserved in the form of hay 

 or ensilage in sufficient quantity to tide over the period of drought. The 

 rainy period on the North Coast is usually the summer, and it is very seldom 

 that high-yielding crops of maize and sorghum cannot be grown. Where 

 the farmer cannot afford the expense of a silo, it is recommended that he 

 adopt the stack system described in the Agricultural Gazette of November — 

 a system requiring no skill in stack building, and in whicli the percentage 



