The Winter 0/ 1885-86. 
409 
" 3. Root crops were, on the whole, good in this neighbourhood ; the small 
quantity on my farm are very good. I took close on 80 tons of swedes from 
one field of 2 acres. 
I had prepared about 60 tons of silage and clover. I had small plots 
of cabbage alongside several pastures, and a small quantity of prickly 
comfrey, and about 120 tons of swedes. My sheep are Welsh mountain 
sheep ; it is not customary to feed these at any season, but I taught mine to 
eat turnips and silage, and saved many ewes and lambs which would otherwise 
have died. My neighbours lost great numbers. 
" 5. Owing to the long winter I have been unable to get in any catch- 
crops of green oats for the silo. I could only wait for weather to work the 
land until April. 
" 6. Silage was most valuable. I used it for milking cows as a change of 
diet ; for yearling and two-year-old bullocks, housed in a covered yard, as 
their main supply of food. I got the sheep to cat it, and in this respect it 
was most useful and handy. I have not any good statistics as to weight, &c.; 
but some of its advantages are the quickness and handiness with which a 
large number of beasts can be foddered ; no chafEng, slicing, or cooking is 
required ; the food is ready and succulent whenever it is taken out — and 
what is not used can lie by till next wanted ; it is very wholesome food. Beef 
fed on it is like grass-fed loeef as distinguished from stall-fed. 
" 9. Also foreign competition. 
" 10. I should gather from my own experience in such a mountain pasture 
as this, that the obstacles to be overcome are — long winter and hard weather 
for nearly eight mouths of the year; and therefore, the want of some cheap 
and succulent food, which can be stored away for use as required. I think 
the short summer should be used to ' force ' heavy green crops, almost as 
much as to make hay in. The difficulties of climate should be neutralised by 
judicious shelter, and the quality of manure should be imj^roved by covering 
in the shelter-yards. Speaking as a man of business, rather than as a farmer, 
I would say that it will be well to avoid attempting any product of a highly- 
finished character, and to aim at crops and produce which require a small 
amount of labour and are realised at shorter intervals — e.g. a 2i-year bullock, 
fed on silage, with a small allowance of cake, as against a bullock 85 years, 
finished on cake and meal and turnips." 
Earl Powis, Powis Castle Farm, Welshpool, Montgomery- 
shire : 
" 1. Rising from the banks of the Severn to an altitude of 950 feet above 
the sea-level ; soil varying accordingly. Aspect is mostly southern, and the 
district is well- timbered, the climate being comparatively mild. Farm is 
principally grass, i.e., three-fourths grass and one-fourth arable. Mixed 
system of husbandry, comprising dairy farming, cattle rearing and feeding, and 
sheep rearing and feeding. About an eighth part of the farm is subject to floods. 
" 2. The summer of 1885 was dry ; splendid haymaking weather, but too 
dry for swedes. The autumn was very wet, injuring rather seriously the 
later grain crops, both in corn and straw, but repairing to a great extent the 
effects of the dry summer on the root crops, and causing a luxurious growth 
on pastures and meadows. The winter was rather long and severe, with 
violent changes of the weather. The spring of 1886 was considerably later 
than usual. 
" 3. The summer of 1885 suited the mangold crop well. It was too dry 
for swedes ; the seed did not all come up at once ; the turnip-fly made great 
havoc ; some dry soils mildewed, and generally the plants got stunted in their 
growth. The wet autumn did much to remedy the effects of the dry summer 
on the swede crops. 
VOL. XXII. — S. S. 2 E 
