WINTER GREEN ENSILAGE 159 



cost more per cwt. in April than they will bring later 

 on in the season. Further, if the stock can be bought 

 in and later sold out at a profit, there is considerable 

 delay in consuming a large area of the crop and a con- 

 sequent delay in getting down the succeeding crop. 



This difficulty is the main reason why the old- 

 fashioned system of catch-cropping was never adopted 

 on anything like a large scale, except in sheep grazing 

 areas. Many farmers who, for instance, put down, say, 

 twenty acres of rye or rape as catch crops between 

 corn and roots, found that the catch crops were of 

 little or no advantage. One or two acres proved very 

 useful as an early bite, but a large area of such plots 

 generally meant the late sowing of roots and resultant 

 poor crops. 



With such crops as rye, vetches, or scarlet clover, 

 when more of these crops are available than are 

 wanted for immediate requirements, there is no diffi- 

 culty in converting them into sweet ensilage, either on 

 the silo principle, or on the writer's stack system, 

 dealt with in an earlier chapter. Later, the results 

 of a rape ensilage experiment, which the writer and 

 his partner are about to carry out, will, when avail- 

 able, be put, before the farming public. In return, it 

 would be a great help to us, if any farmer who has 

 already made experiments in ensiling such crops, 

 would communicate with the writer. The more of this 

 swapping of experiences which we practical farmers 

 indulge in, the better for ourselves, for our industry, 

 and for the future national welfare. 



CHEAP TILLAGE 



The cultivation, manuring, and seeding of rye have 

 already been dealt with. As regards the cultivation of 

 other types of winter greens, it is pretty much the 



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