150 Additional Crops for Cows and Sheep. 



successfully after corn when sown in early autumn, but it 

 mayibe sown with white turnips in the late summer, in which 

 case the turnips may be fed off lightly in autumn, and the 

 rye-grass will be available in spring. This practice is more 

 suitable on light land than on heavy, as the latter is more 

 liable to poach in a wet autumn. When sown on clean land 

 in early summer a good feed may be obtained in autumn 

 and another in the spring. No crop grows so much valuable 

 food under irrigation, and on sewage farms it has always been 

 one of the most profitable crops. 



From time to time the value of gorse as a crop for producing 

 food for cows comes under strong advocacy, but generally 

 the question flickers out in most districts until another strong 

 advocate appears. The trouble of cutting and then crushing 

 or chopping seems to be a hindrance which tends to its 

 unpopularity. In some districts where its cultivation has been 

 practised for generations, and where other food is difficult to 

 obtain, it is accepted that it will be grown, and the work entailed 

 is taken as a matter of course. Gorse is sometimes drilled in 

 a cereal crop, or by itself, and the land should then be quite 

 clean. The seed, 8 to 10 lb. per acre, is drilled in rows 18 to 24 

 inches apart, to the depth of an inch. In the first year it is 

 kept clean by hoeing, which cannot be done if it is sown 

 broadcast as is occasionally done. In the autumn of the second 

 year the first crop may be taken, by mowing. In subsequent 

 years the crop is cut by a hook or scythe. The cut crop is put 

 through a crushei- or masticator, reducing it to a moss-like 

 condition easily digested. A feature in favour of gorse as a 

 food is that it supplies a relatively succulent food from 

 November until May. 



In spite of a strong campaign some years ago to induce 

 farmers to take advantage of prickly comfrey as succulent food, 

 it is now but little grown. There is no doubt that an excep- 

 tional yield of green food, which animals can be induced to eat 

 after some encouragement, can be grown. When well established 

 as many as three or four cuttings, each of 5 or 10 tons, can be 

 taken from an acre. Its cultivation is very simple, as it can be 

 grown from seeds or roots, the latter being the most common ; 

 the sets broken from the roots are placed on cultivated ground 

 in rows 2 ft. apart and 18 in. apart in the rows. Its many 

 disadvantages, however, seem to have worn down the 

 endurance of its greatest enthusiasts, for in many a weedy 

 corner occasional plants show that it has been under cultiva- 

 tion there and then abandoned. 



Two valuable crops, however, remain — maize and helianti ; 

 the first proved by many years' experience and the latter still 

 but little known or grown. 



