120 CONTINUOUS CROPPING 



during a period of frost or snow, therefore, it is essential 

 to convert a portion of either the vetches or seeds into 

 the sweet silage (previously described). In fact it is 

 a very good plan, and renders silage-making all 

 the easier, to mix seeds, hay, and vetches together 

 in the stack, but since they will not be growing in 

 the same field in the same year the labour of carting 

 may make this recommendation difficult if not im- 

 practicable. 



Again, I have recently found that a portion of kale 

 or rape can be mixed through longer fodder in the 

 making of silage on the new plan. It is very useful to 

 know this, as often a farmer obtains a bigger bulk of 

 these crops than can be conveniently consumed. So 

 far I have only mixed one load of kale to every three 

 loads of vetches or seeds, but am in hopes of yet 

 being able to make sweet silage from the former crops 

 alone. 



In using rape or kale mixed with long fodder for the 

 making of silage, it is a distinct advantage to get the 

 latter partly dried to absorb the excessive moisture in 

 the former. It is not possible, however, to dry either 

 rape or kale even partly. I did try this one year, and 

 the resultant silage had such a frightful smell that no 

 one could go near it without a respirator on. 



GRASS SEEDS MIXTURE 



As already indicated, part of this in its first year of 

 growth can be hayed or ensiled if necessary, and the 

 rest grazed ; or, if enough fodder is obtained from the 

 vetch, the seeds can be grazed in the first year. 



Under any conditions, in their second year — ^the fifth 

 in the rotation — ^the seeds should be grazed, and they 

 may even be grazed a third or fourth year, provided a 

 grass-seed mixture of three or four years* duration has 

 been sown originally. The only conditions under which 



