410 
The Winter o/' 1885-86. 
" We used silage for the dairy stock. The feeding cattle had pulped 
roots with chopped straw and hay, and a mixture of ground barley and maize, 
some little wheat and col ton-cake. The sheep had roots on the pastures, 
with hay in racks ; those that were feeding had some i^eas and cotton- 
cake in addition. "We found that the cake bills were slightly increased in the 
past year. 
" 5. The large mangold crop proved invaluable this spring, and with some 
jrood bay carried the stock through to grass nicely. We have some mangolds 
still left at the end of May. A plot of prickly comfrey came in useful. No 
catch-crops are grown here ; but a reserve of old hay is always kept on hand 
to meet an emergency. 
"6. We preser^-ed in a silo about 90 tons of green clover and rye-grass, 
put in uncut and weighted with stones. The contents we gave to dairy- 
cows during winter, two feeds j'Hjr day of silage, and three feeds of hay. 
The quantiiy of milk was increased, the quality improved, and the cows 
kept well up in their condition. 
" 7. The district being well sheltered with trees and hedges, very little 
sp eial shelter is provided for sheep. We find rain much more detrimental 
to c^eep than frost or snow. The weather during the past lambing season 
was the roughest we have had for years, but with a little extra care and 
labour we pulled through and had fewer losses than usual. 
" 9. The price of store stock was lowered considerably by the failure of 
the root-crop, and consequent shortness of keep. The price of beef and 
mutton was but slightly affected by that cause, and that only for a month 
or two at the beginning of the winter. 
" 10. No special lesson, beyond encouragement to continue the use of the 
silo, and to always contrive to have an old haystack or two left in some 
corner, as a reserve fund to fall back upon. It is bad and short-sighted 
policy to use up every winter all the produce of the preceding summer, 
leaving the stackyard empty at May Day. If the English farmer would 
in a good season get up an extra quantity of hay, when it came a dry 
season with failure of roots, he might ensile his fodder-crops, which, with 
the old bay, would enable him to carry his stock through the winter, and 
so avoid the loss consequent on compulsory sale or shortness of keep." 
Mr. J. Brockie (agent to Lord Emljn), Golden Grove Farm, 
Carmarthenshire : 
" 1. In the vale of Towy. Three-fourths of the soil is good loam, varying 
from three to five feet in depth, with a gravelly bottom, and is capable of pro- 
ducing heavy crops. The remainder has a tendency to be clayey, requiring 
gi-eater cultivation than the rest. The climate is humid, with a rainfall of 
59'91 inches (for 1885) and variable temperature, and proves very fickle in 
the securing of crops. * 
" 2. ITie dry summer of 1885 produced good cereals, but the autumn being 
wet prevented the harvesting of crops in good condition. The winter, mild 
up to December, favoured the root crop, but was followed by severe weather 
in 1886; and continuing so until the middle of April, made fodder dear and 
the sowing of com late, yet the land pulverised by frosts made a good seed bed. 
"3. Mangolds were sown in good time, and were not checked by the 
drought of early summer; but swedes suffered greatly, were backward in 
coming through, and worried bj' fly. The rains during the latter end of 
summer and autumn did great good, and the crops, though later in maturing, 
were an average. 
" 4. Cattle fed on swedes and mangolds (which kept well), hay and straw, 
crushed oats and oilcake. Sheep were provided with turnips and swedes, 
carted on to pastures, and hay. 
