Co-operatire Forage Experiments in Southern Victoria. 97 



CO-OPERATIVE FORAGE EXPERIMENTS IN 

 SOUTHERN VICTORIA. 



By F. J. Hoa^ell, Ph. D. 



(A Paper Prepared at the Invitation of the Butter Factory Managers' 



Association.) 



To use the expression which ray colleague, Mr. Crowe, made 

 only a few days ago, " The success of the dairy industry, with 

 its large possible future developments, depends mainly upon 

 the attention which will be given to the growth of forage 

 crops throughout Victoria." It is only when we reflect quietly on 

 the enormous yearly loss due to the decrease of the milk supply — 

 brought about by bare pastures and the absence of succulent foods to 

 take their place — that the importance of the subject strikes us with its 

 full force. The question is one which affects you, perhaps, as a body, 

 less directly than it does the dairyman who supplies you with his 

 produce, but your interests, as a body, are so intimately bound up 

 with those of the producer, that this paper will even appeal 

 to yourselves, as holding, perhaps, some few facts which may 

 be considered worth bringing under notice. The Director of Agri- 

 culture, shortly after his arrival in Victoria, decided that it was neces- 

 sary to make experimental field tests to determine the possibility of 

 providing a continuous supply of succulent forage from the period of 

 the first failure of the pastures till the time of the utilization of the 

 early sown autumn fodders in the following year. These questions, 

 naturally involved chemical investigations. For the successful growth 

 of a plant depends not only upon climatic conditions, such as rainfall, 

 temperature, &c.,_ but upon soil conditions also. The chemical com- 

 positi<jn, and the physical characteristics of a soil, are factors which 

 determine the adaptability of certain localities for special cultures as 

 much, or even more, perhaps, than the climatic conditions peculiar to that 

 district. Investigations then involving questions of this nature fall, 

 naturally, within the province of the chemist, and as such it was the 

 Chemical Branch which was instructed to take up these investigations. 

 The experiments were taken up at a moment's notice, with little or no 

 preliminary preparation. The serious condition of the country, with 

 its bare pastures and starving herds, had brought the forage question 

 into full prominence, and in a measure, forced it upon the immediate 

 attention of the De])artment. Applications were invited from farmei's 

 willing to co-operate in the work and over 100 replies were received, 

 and manures and seeds were distributed to as many centres. Only a 

 small percentage of these fields at harvesting were sufiicently complete, 

 and well attended to, to give all the results sought for. In a great 

 number of cases, the farmer, pushed for the most part for feed, had 

 cut the crop before reaching maturity, and without keeping records of 



