232 Suggested Changes of Farming System. 



From March isth to May 24th, 1902, 3 ewes and single lambs per 

 acre, with the assistance of two cartloads of turnips per day 

 for the field. 



From May 24th to July 28th, 1902, 2J ewes and single lambs per 

 acre. ^ 



From July 28th to October ist, 1902, 3 ewes per acre. 



From May ist, 1902, to June loth, 5 cattle. 



From June 13th to September 4th, 2 horses. 

 The fourth weak point of the existing system is that the farmer 

 is put to considerable expense in weeding his fields. I found from 

 an estimate made for me by one of my tenants that he was spending 

 IIS. 4d. per acre in cleaning a field preparatory to sowing turnips. 

 With our system of farming we practically have no weeds, or so few 

 that they are not worth removing. In two instances we abandoned 

 our usual system, and took oats instead of turnips out of grass, when, 

 of course, weeds naturally followed. It may be mentioned here 

 that our system is turnips out of grass, then oats, then turnips, when 

 the land is laid down to grass, with oats or barley, and kept in 

 grass not less than four years. 



The fifth weak point of the present farming system is the great 

 cost of handling and re-handling farmyard manure. With the new 

 farming system you grow your manure on the spot in the shape of 

 a deeply-rooted turf, which most fully supplies that humus which 

 is the most valuable part of farmyard manure. This may now be 

 carted direct from the steading, and scattered on the nearest grass 

 field. By the careful investigation of the late Dr. Voelcker, it has 

 been proved that this would involve no loss of manure (much of 

 which is liable to loss on the existing system), though if left in small 

 heaps on the land there would be a loss. 



The sixth weak point in the present farming system consists of 

 growing the most innutritions grass. I this year sent a sample of 

 the Bank field hay to a friend, who obtained a practical opinion for 

 me from a farmer who grows hay for the Liverpool market, and the 

 sample, I may add, was by no means a favourable one, as all the best 

 part of the hay had been used. The farmer writes as follows : — " I 

 only regret I have not a thousand tons of such fodder, as I should 

 then fear neither rent day nor pay day, nor, for the matter of that, 

 scarcely any other days ; such hay as I have before me would sell 

 like wildfire in Liverpool, even in the face of severe home and 

 foreign competition." It is interesting to observe how the opinion 

 of the practical hay grower coincides with the analyses in Sinclair's 

 work. The nutritive value of perennial ryegrass stands at 70, that 

 of cocksfoot 80, tall oat grass 120, tall fescue 94, rough-stalked 

 meadow grass 80, burnet 100, yarrow 98— all of these being grown in 

 the Bank field mixture. Chicory stands at 60, or nearly the same 



