

IMPROVEMENT OF OLD PASTURE 93 



connection with various agricultural colleges have 

 shown that pasture land after being treated in this 

 way has carried a much heavier stocking of sheep per 

 acre, and produced a much larger amount of live-weight 

 increase. (See reports of the Glasgow and Edinburgh 

 Agricultural Colleges, also Cockle Park experiments.) 



On soils rich in lime, potassic super (super and 

 kainit) gives equally good results as at the Midland 

 Dairy Institute, where dairy cows grazing on manured 

 plots gave considerably larger quantities of milk. 1 

 On light soils a dressing of 4 cwts. of raw bone 

 meal often brings about the desired effect. 



Forage or Soiling Crops. 



The term forage or soiling crop refers generally 

 to those crops which are grown on arable land for 

 their stems and leaves, and are cut and fed to stock 

 in the green state. It is also usual to include rape and 

 mustard, which are fed off by sheep on the ground. 



These crops are all important in the south and east 

 of England, where the climate is usually hot in summer, 

 and the land is considered to be too dry to grow 

 permanent grass satisfactorily. Hence the land is kept 

 arable, and any green food which is required for live 

 stock is grown in rotation cropping. The chief plants 

 which are used for this purpose are : 



Rye, oats, barley, Italian rye grass, and maize ; 

 lucerne, sainfoin, vetches, trifolium and trefoil. 



Rye, Barley, and Oats are sown either in the 

 autumn or spring, and generally along with vetches, at 

 the rate of 2 to 4 bushels of the cereal grain to I bushel 



1 During the last three years the average amount of milk 

 produced from cows fed on the manured plots amounted to 

 93 galls, per acre more than that produced from cows fed on the 

 unmanured plots. 



