118 



Agricultural Journal of Victoria. 



Such opinions are those of dairymen, and ought to carry some 

 weight. They are men who have had experieiice with the mangel, 

 and have evidently found by experience that there are qualities in beet, 

 notwithstanding its smaller yield, which attach to it a value above and 

 beyond that of the first crop. Undoubtedly one of the first recom- 

 mendations is that it comes in at a time when most of the fodders usually 

 o-rowu are done. I can recommend the croj) in full confidence to the 

 dairymen. 



Food Values of the Various Crops. 



It would have been of interest as well as of value to have analysed 

 the various fodders from different parts of Victoria, but the long- 

 distance of the fields from the laboratory, and the difiiculties of trans- 

 port prevented accurate work of this kind being carried out. It will 

 be understood that it is not the bulk alone of a fodder which consti- 

 tutes its value, but the amount and the composition of the dry matter it 

 contains. Different plants at the time of cutting show great variations 

 in the percentage of dry matter they contain. The following tables 

 taken fi'om American sources will give you some idea of the variations 

 in this respect as well as the differences in food value of a number of 

 the crops grown. I wish you to regard them, however, as applicable 

 to our conditions more as approximations than as absolutely correct 

 estimates. 



Total Dry Matter and Digestible Nutrients in 10 tons of Green Forage 

 FROM Each of the Following Crops : — 



Summary. 



There are numerous other points bearing upon the experiments of 

 the year which might be touched upon, but the limits of this paper 

 will not allow of this. A review of the results embodied in this paper 

 might, I tlmik, suggest the following conclusions : — 



1. That there is a very wide range of summer forage crops adapted 

 to that portion of Victoria in which the experiments were conducted, 

 and the possible arrangements from such a list of crops of a rotation 

 capable of providing a wealth of succulent fodder from the first failure 

 of the spring pastures till the utilization of the early sown winter 

 crops in the following year. 



2. That maize, although to a certain extent justifying the position 

 of favour, which it at present holds with the dairyman, owing to its 

 great earliness, may still be followed with advantage by other succulent 



