24 



Notes on Forage Crops. 



[Apr., 



Wheat, cut green, is excellent fodder, and a mixture of wheat 

 and vetches stands much better than mixtures of barley and 

 vetches, or oats and vetches. In districts which lie at too 

 high an altitude to ripen wheat, and where it grows luxuriantly, 

 it is worth while considering the growing of wheat for 

 dry fodder to be cut in the milk stage, tied into sheaves, and 

 dried in the stook. Cattle thrive remarkably well on wheat 

 straw harvested in the green stage. Browick Grey Chaff wheat, 

 owing to its hardiness, is recommended, but it is hoped shortly 

 to put into cultivation varieties specially raised for the 

 purpose of giving large yields of stem and leaf. 



The oat has always been recognised as one of the best 

 of^the cereals for fodder, particularly the old varieties 

 such as Clemrotheray, the seed of w^hich can be obtained 

 in quantity. The modern seed oats are unsuited to the 

 purpose, because of their habit of growing thinly on the 

 ground, and their want of hardiness. By far the best 

 of all oats for forage is the variety known as Duns, 

 which unfortunately is not in general cultivation. It is 

 the ideal forage oat, it grows densely on the ground, is leafy, 

 succulent, tall, and stands well, and it is difficult to imagine 

 how it could be improved. At the Harper Adams College, 

 during a year of badly laid corn, a field of Duns oats, although 

 six feet high, remained erect at harvest time. The ears are 

 light but large, and the grains long and lean, in consequence 

 of which it does not give yields of grain on good land equal 

 to those of the grain oats. A great point in its favour as a 

 fodder crop is its lateness, and its slow ripening: it remains 

 gi'een and succulent for a long period. It consists of many 

 types, and could be made more uniform by selection. 



Buckwheat. — Buckwheat has long been known as a useful 

 forage crop. Mills among other writers speaks well of it. He 

 says : — 



" Milch cows fed on buckwheat will yield an extraordinary 

 quantity of milk, remarkably good for making into butter and 

 cheese, and another advantage attending this pasture is that 

 it will continue green in the driest time of summer when 

 other grass is burnt up." 



Buckwheat has been grown and fed successfully at the 

 Harper Adams College in conjunction with peas and rape, and 

 the writer urges a trial of this mixture by those who have poor 

 light soil. Buckwheat will grow on the poorest soils, and if 

 the crop were eaten off by sheep the land would be in a con- 



