CHAPTER XV. 



THE PRESERVATION AND USE OF MAIZE STOVER, HAY AND 

 SILAGE, FOR STOCK FOOD. 



Fields of corn brandishing their myriad swords under the impulse of the 

 breeze. — Leroy Scott (i). 



chap. 691. Loss of Stock from Lack of Winter Food. — The winter 



XV ' of 191 2 will long be remembered for the heavy loss of stock 

 incurred by farmers in each Province of South Africa. 



In countries where the climate is such that the pasturage 

 does not grow all through the year, or does not remain green, 

 the stockman must take the precaution either (a) to keep only 

 so many head of stock as can be carried on his winter or dry- 

 season veld, or (b) to preserve as much food during the growing 

 season, as is needed to keep his stock through the period when 

 the pasturage is scarce. The first method necessitates locking 

 up too much capital in keeping extra pasturage for winter ; 

 the second means the growing of surplus food in the summer, 

 and is the more economical. 



The mild South African winter makes stock-farming com- 

 paratively easy, and in consequence the stock-farmer is apt to 

 become somewhat easy-going. If frozen ground compelled 

 him to house his cattle in winter and to hand-feed them, as is 

 necessary in some countries, he would have to be more provi- 

 dent ; but because in most winters his animals manage to keep 

 alive without artificial feeding, the average farmer does not 

 trouble to provide winter feed. The South African farm is 

 often too large, and in consequence the farmer does not get the 

 full value from it ; many farmers possess two or more stock- 

 farms, one on the High-veld plateau and the other in the Bush- 

 veld or " winter's- veld " as it is sometimes called, the latter 

 being used, as its name implies, for the pasturing of stock 

 during the winter months ; this conduces to slovenly farming 



732 



