694 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [15 Nov., 1919. 



The system of silage farming can be applied to nil varieties of soil, 

 but it appears to liave special advantages on wet, heavy land and on 

 light sandy — the two most difficult classes of land to cultivate at a 

 profit. On the heavy soil, the wheat 'stubble can be ploughed up in the 

 autumn, it can have another ploughing at the end of March, -and maize 

 can be ploughed in at the rate of 2 bushels per acre by means of a small 

 drill attached to the plough about the middle of May. In a dry spring. 

 a fallow will have been made of the land, and if, as is customary, everj' 

 alternate furrow is planted, the single furrow hoe will soon be able to 

 commence work between the rov/s and the more this implement of 

 husbandry is in use the better the crop, the fewer the weeds and the 

 better condition the soil will be in for the following crop. On the poor 

 light land soil, oats and tares, at the rate of 1 bushel of the former to 2 

 of the latter, with a few beans to hold the tares up, can be drilled in 

 the early autumn, and with twice harrowing in the spring no further 

 expense is necessary till the crop is ready to place in the silo. In June 

 the soil is then broken up and usually a crop of turnips or mustard can 

 be obtained. Most farmers, carrying a flock of breeding ewes on light 

 soil, know the difficulty of obtaining feed of a succulent natvire in a dry 

 July when all crops are parched from a ])rolonged drought. With a 

 full silo there is no scarcity, and one great advantage of silage is that 

 if it is not required one year it can be used the next. At the present 

 time over-yeared silage is being fed on an adjoining farm, and, to all 

 appearances, it is equal in quality to that consumed the previous year. 

 Dairy farmers were at one time under the impression that the smell 

 from silage might be detrimental to the keeping of milk. Such, however, 

 is not the case; some milk sellers who have continually fed silage during 

 the winter months for many years past have never had a complaint in 

 this respect from their London buyers. 



In 1SS6-7, some experiments were carried out by Dr. J. Augustus 

 Voeleker on behalf of the Royal Agricultural Society at Wohurn, the 

 special object being to ascertain the value of grass silage as against grass 

 made into hay. The results arrived at after feeding two lots of bullocks, 

 one on silage and one on hay, appear to have been only slightly in 

 favour of silage. This is not surprising, considering grass is 

 not a suitable crop to put in a silo. However, one can really 

 see that a crop of oats and vetches (tares), grown on arable 

 land in practically half a season, will show a considerably 

 better result than a crop of grass converted into silage. The Journal 

 of the Board of Agriculture, of May last, in giving the advantages of 

 silage, states: — "Stock fed on silage made from leguminous crops, i.e., 

 clover, lucerne, sainfoin, and vetches, Avill require less oilcake than stock 

 fed on roots; moreover such crops tend to incrciase the fertility of the 

 land." "The labour -involved in feeding silage is very much less than 

 that of feeding roots." 



The two items mentioned, increasing the fertility of the soil and 

 economizing labour, are two points which no one can afford to over- 

 look in the present-day management of the farm, and the experience of 

 many farmers in the eastern countips is that silnge is an aid to the 

 attainment of both these ends. 



