On increasing our Supplies of Animal Food. 



355 



Of these the 5th is less likely to realise its estimate than 

 any of the others, as its large produce depends upon the possi- 

 bility, on an average number of years, of obtaining 16 tons of 

 rape or turnips on a clay soil after a spring crop of vetches, and 

 this is extremely doubtful. Of the fourth rotation — our own — we 

 would only say that we have grown in the past year 30 acres of 

 clover (15 of them for horses), 30 acres of mangold wurzel, 

 15 acres of swedes and turnips, 14 acres of carrots and potatoes 

 (of which at least 12 acres have been sold, or eaten by horses), so 

 that on 3-8ths of the farm we have had a produce for consumption 

 of 960 tons of green food ; and if all had been converted into 

 meat, as it might have been, the produce available for that pur- 

 pose would have been — 



30 acres of clover . . == 3G0 tons. 

 30 , , mangold wurzel = 420 , , 

 15 , , swedes . = 300 , , 

 14 , , carrots, &c. . = 280 , , 



Total . ! . . 1360 ,, 



The meat made from 960 tons has been as follows : — 



70 sheep bought at probably 15 lbs. a qr. are being n«. 



sold now at 25 lbs. = 70 x 40 . . . 2800 

 About 160 sheep bought at 13 lbs. a qr. will be sold 



in April at probably 23 lbs. = 160 x 40 . . 6400 



10 oxen weighing 5 cwt. have become 6 cwt. each . 1120 



20 oxen weighing 6 cwt. have become 8 cwt. each . 4480 



6 cows weighing 5 cwt. have become 7 cwt. each . 1344 



Add say 30 cwt. of bacon and pork . . . 3360 



Total meat made .... 19,504 

 But at least 240Z. worth of food have been purchased, and if 

 it be supposed to have made its worth of meat, which is by the 

 way a very doubtful thing, then at 6d. per lb. we must deduct 

 at least 9504 lbs. from the amount of meat made, leaving 10,000 

 lbs. as the produce of 960 tons, or about 13000 lbs. as the produce 

 of 1360 tons — the produce, in fact, of a farm of 240 acres. This 

 is only about 60 lbs. of meat per acre ; it is only 1 lb. of meat 

 produced by the consumption of about 200 lbs. of green food. 

 It is a result, however, probably as near the truth as we can 

 attain ; including the circumstances of illness suffered by stock, 

 and of a deduction of the whole value of cattle-food purchased. 



In the sixth rotation named, the small produce of meat illus- 

 trates the effect of the naked fallow. I believe that there is 

 no more effectual method of increasing our supplies of animal 

 food than the substitution of a green crop such as the vetch, the 

 cabbage, or the mangold wurzel — all clay soil plants — for the 

 naked fallow. This substitution could be effected without ex- 

 pense, that is at a cost paid for by the additional returns it would 



