54 THE EQUIPMENT OF THE FARM. 



10 tons of green food between May and July should thus 

 keep 10 sheep or more per acre during these 13 weeks. 

 A crop of swedes weighing 20 tons per acre should keep 18 

 or 19 sheep per acre during 12 or 13 weeks more, if other 

 food be also given. A crop of grass yielding 15 to 17 tons of 

 green stuff in the course of the summer should keep 2 

 cows per acre between May and October. This will be 

 ample food for them during the early months, though not 

 perhaps enough during the latter months. If the land 

 is wholly grazing ground, it must be stocked more 

 thickly in May and June than in September ; or pro- 

 vision-in the way of cabbages and vetches, &c., must be 

 made as the grass is growing short. In practice the stock 

 on the area of dairy ground is maintained or even increased 

 in quantity as the months of summer go on ; the food being 

 kept proportioned to it by a large proportion of the grass of 

 the early months being made into hay, the after-math of 

 which becomes available to help the diminished yield of the 

 remaining area during the latter months. 



The kind of calculation which must be made may be 

 illustrated by an example. 



We will take the case of a 500 acre farm of a fairly sub- 

 stantial soil, one-fifth old grass with the plough land culti- 

 vated for the most part on the four-course system a certain 

 amount of variation being adopted in the green crop half, 

 so as to admit of a greater interval between the clover crops 

 and a certain amount of catch cropping to meet the wants 

 of what may be called difficult seasons of the year for 

 the livestock on the farm. The table on the next page 

 gives the quantity of food available month by month on 

 the farm according to the scheme of cultivation described 

 on the page after it. 



