62 PRACTICAL NOTES ON GRASSES AND GRASS GROWING. 
plan) to help its growth, and prepare the land for the young 
turnips of the following year. This crop, during an average 
season, will be found ready for the ewes and lambs about the 
first week in April, but it is of comparatively little value at 
the end of the third week in the same month. Calculations 
should therefore be based on this knowledge, and only 
sufficient seed for a fortnight’s consumption sown. Should 
there, however, be a prospect of a great scarcity of spring 
feed, so the grower must submit to feeding a scant crop, or 
take the risk of an open spring, sufficient seed for a month 
may be sown, and the flock turned in to feed the crop 
during the latter end of March. 
On our farm we adopt the course we have quoted 
above. We manure well, and sow for a fortnight’s consump- 
tion by the flock, and our turnip crop afterwards is almost 
always heavy. When the rye seed gives out we fill up the drill 
with tares and wheat, and sow an area of ground sufficiently 
large to produce another fortnight’s feed. 
Over the land which we have apportioned for the second 
fortnight we sow about 6 lb. to 8 lb. of trifolium per acre, the 
seedlings from which the young lambs, taking advantage of 
their special hurdles, carefully pick off before the fold gets 
on, and the feed is very advantageous to their growth. 
Maize is now considerably used for catch crops, of this we 
have had but comparatively few years’ experience, and our 
knowledge hardly extends beyond the observation that it is 
greatly liked by milch cows, and gives good results in the 
dairy. It must not be sown until quite late in May in con- 
sequence of possible frost, which is fatal. Most growers 
prefer to sow maize thickly, which causes it to become more 
leafy, prevents coarseness, and is a greater safeguard against 
the depredations of birds, rats, and other vermin. From a 
bushel to a bushel and a-half of maize, with a similar quantity 
of tares per acre, is the best quantity, in our opinion, to sow. 
