100 AyricuUuraJ Journal of Virforia. 



Gippsland, we cannot look to yields of even half the quantity, although 

 under the most favorable conditions, and on the first-class soils, far 

 better results than such an average will be obtained. An examination 

 of the maximum and minimum yield in each case will show the great 

 variations of the soils experimented on. The most pleasant feature 

 perhaps, in the experiments is the discovered possibility of rendering 

 land considered almost worthless highly productive, and obtaining 10 

 and 12 tons or more to the acre of valuable forage, from a soil which, 

 in its natural state, would not, perhaps, yield three. That even the 

 average yields, however, are of a highly satisfactory nature becomes 

 evident on comparing them with the averages obtained for five years 

 at the New Jersey Experimental Station. Some most valuable soiling 

 crop experiments have been conducted at this Station for a number of 

 years. The results as indicating the possibilities of intensive farm 

 practice under conditions, judging from a comparison of the results, 

 certainly no better than our own, are of great value to every dairyman 

 in Victoria. In their experiments a succession of soiling crops was 

 obtained, which, in addition to a few pounds of fine feed per cow per 

 day, supplied an equivalent of 50 full grown animals from May 1st to 

 November 1st ; 278 tons of forage were secured from 24 acres, 14 only 

 of which were used the whole of the season. With the much 

 larger yield obtainable over a considerable portion of Southern Vic- 

 toria, the possibilities in this direction become very apparent. I have 

 used the phrase Southern Victoria as including Gippsland and the 

 Western district, as well as laud adjacent to or slightly north of Mel- 

 bourne. The fields were limited to this area. 



The Objects of Forage Experiments. 



Before proceeding further a short explanation of the objects of a 

 forage experiment might be given. The object of a forage experiment 

 should be to discover the crops giving the best succession, as well as 

 those yielding the greatest bulk of produce of the greatest nutri- 

 tive value. It is the second point we can first consider. The yields 

 in the tables I have just called attention to, giving the average 

 returns of a number of different crops are not comparati\e yields, as 

 all these crops were not grown side by side. To get at the compara- 

 tive yields of the different crops, to be able to say, for instance, 

 whether maize grown on the same soil produces a heavier yield than 

 amber cane, it is essential that they should be grown side by side, 

 under exactly identical conditions of soil and climate. Now this 

 has been possible in a great number of cases, and the results 

 which have been obtained as bearing on the actual amount of produce 

 obtainable from the different crops, under similar conditions are, in 

 many cases, fairly conclusive and of great value. It would, I think, 

 be advisable, in every way, to make the yield of maize the basis to 

 which the yields of all other crops might be referred. For general 

 forage purposes, it is as an annual crop, the one most extensively grown ; 

 in fact, little else, as an annual summer forage, has as yet been 

 attempted in Southern Victoria. If it can be shown that, as an 



