142 Additional Crops for Coxes and Sheep. 



chiefly for autumn, winter, and early spring feeding ; if this 

 were not so, it is impracticable to account for the possibility of 

 now carrying a heavier head of stock through winter on 400,000 

 fewer acres of root crops than were grown thirty years before. 

 It must, however, be remembered that a really long and severe 

 winter has not been experienced since the first months of 1895, 

 and that very few roots have been frosted and ruined during 

 these milder winters — a condition rarely experienced in this 

 climate. 



Additional food for cows and sheep can certainly be found 

 by increasing the root area. It may be accepted that the land 

 "will carry a root crop once in four years with reasonable 

 safety wiihout becoming " root-sick." The area under the 

 plough at the present time, and the acreage of roots grown, 

 as indicated in the Returns, show that on an average the land 

 comes under roots but once in seven years. On chalk soils 

 root or allied crops are taken more often than once in four 

 years, but against this some of the heavy clays comparatively 

 rarely carry roots. In dealing with the area at present under 

 roots, as we have seen, the catch crops sown in autumn are not 

 calculated, and these have a bearing on the question of root- 

 sickness, but they are not as a rule very exhaustive in com- 

 parison with a crop which holds the land from May through 

 autumn and winter. Difficulties of working heavy land for 

 roots, and of feeding ofi' these crops in wet winters, make such 

 land unpopular for root growing. By altering the method 

 of farm management, however, far more root growing may be 

 successfully carried out on heavy land. One often hears it 

 said, " I should like to see the man who could grow roots on 

 land like niine." Very often one could point out those who 

 are successfully growing " roots " on land which presents 

 greater difficulties than that to which the speaker refers ; but 

 that they do not always follow exactly the lines which are 

 found successful on more friable land. 



Before dealing specifically with crops which are available 

 under ordinary conditions, it is well to consider what part the 

 root crop plays in the food problem on the farm. One does 

 not confine " roots " to those plants which are mainly grown 

 for their fleshy or bulbous part, but includes those which, like 

 rape, cabbage, kales, &c., require somewhat similar cultivation, 

 occupy much the same place in a rotation, and supply food 

 closely equivalent to the true '' roots." One speaks of the 

 root crop as including " roots " or " roots and the like." 

 Clovers and rotation grasses occupy far more than one-fourth 

 of the land under the plough, so that with the larger area 

 under permanent grass in recent years there seems no 

 particular reason why the quantity should be further increased. 



