1920.] The Use or Soiling Crops in General Farming. 727 



clajs, the bare fallow might be eliminated by growing Soiling 

 Crop No. VI and wheat in alternate years. These crops would 

 keep the land quite clean and in good condition without the need 

 of any expenditure on manures, while the mechanical texture of 

 the soil would be improved. The processes of cultivation, except 

 ploughing and harrowing, would be performed by the crops 

 themselves. If the crop were cut for green fodder, sow^ing wheat 

 with the mixture in the spring to obviate the difficulty of autumn 

 ploughing is worth consideration. Autumn wheat sown late 

 in the spring stools only the first year, producing ears the second 

 year. If the Soiling Crop No. VI is to be cut for seed this 

 practice could not, of course, be adopted. The method is worth 

 experiment, not only on clay land but on any land which is 

 likely to go down to grass just at the time when wheat is urgently 

 needed. 



Soiling crops may also be grov^n to reinforce the pastures in 

 early summer and in autumn, and also to produce part of the 

 hay crop on arable land instead of obtaining the hay entirely 

 from existing grassland. It is an established fact that average 

 permanent grass is much more valuable for grazing than for 

 mowing for hay, as its yield of hay is small and the quality of 

 the produce is not always of the highest, while the land may 

 be needed for pasturing. Instead of increasing the area of the 

 farm under grass a much better practice w^ould be to use the 

 permanent grass to a greater extent for pasture, and to obtain 

 the hay required from part of the new arable land. Heavy 

 <5rops of pea and oat hay* of much superior quality to and of 

 considerably higher yield than average meadow hay can be 

 obtained from arable land. The crop also makes an excellent 

 preparation for a cereal seed bed, as it leaves the soil clean 

 and enriched. 



In districts where the annual rainfall is less than about 

 85 inches, this method of keeping the arable land in cultiva- 

 tion is probably preferable to laying dow^n new temporary 

 pastures. In the drier districts temporary grass may fail to 

 give a profitable return after the first year, w^hile there is a 

 risk that the pasture may fail to establish itself. In general, 

 the period of high value of permanent grass is very short, and 

 occurs betw'cen about the middle of ]May and the end of July. 

 During these months the stock-carrying capacity of the land 

 is relatively high, and if the land is stocked to its full capacity 



An account of this crop was published in this Journal, February- 1920, 

 p. 1100. 



c 2 



