128 
British Dairy Farming. 
exists for continual green food. I have seen numbers of crops 
of maize grown in a similar manner to that described : among 
others, by M. Boeler, before named, in Oberjssel, Holland, who 
produced some 35 tons per acre as a second crop in a field 
of many acres in extent, the plants being grown on the ridge ; 
by Professor Lecouteux himself at Cerqay, where the plants 
averaged 10 feet in height, covering a very large acreage ; by 
M. GofTart, at Burtin ; by M. Hallo, at the Colonie of St. 
Maurice ; and by innumerable growers of lesser repute in 
France, Switzerland, Italy, and above all in England itself. 
That there is no difficulty in obtaining these large crops in 
England is undoubted, providing a well-selected variety of 
seed, such as the Giant Caragua, is used, and precautions are 
taken to protect it from the crow, which seems to be its only 
enemy. My own crops in 1885 and 1886, grown after tares upon 
ver^- poor land, were most valuable, although they failed to reach 
20 tons per acre, and were more than decimated by the attacks 
of crows, which in the first-named year carried off the entire crop 
planted by Sir John Lawes, by Mr. Abel Smith, M.P., as well 
as by Mr. I. N. Edwards, of St. Albans, who used some of the 
seed which I had imported. These plantings were all in 
Hertfordshire, where crows seem to be maintained by reason of 
the superstitious legend which attaches to a rookery, rather than 
be destroyed on account of the immense damage they do the 
farmer. In the latter year the same seed, which produced only 
a moderate crop upon my own poor land, yielded the most 
marvellous result that I have ever seen in this country upon the 
land of my neighbour Mr. Flitton, near Baldock, which is 
extremely fertile, and which was also highly manured. The 
crop was stupendous, and its proportions entirely beyond his 
means of consumption, equalling many of the most luxuriant 
maize fields to be seen abroad. In this gentleman's case, as in 
that of almost every other grower who has once tried it with 
success, it will in future form a portion of his system of crop- 
ping. The French, like the Americans, have two systems of 
preserving maize : one is to chop it fine, and convert it into ensi- 
lage with a pressure of from 80 to 100 lbs. per square foot, and 
the other is to tie it in sheaves, which are formed into cocks in 
the field. Where the giant maize is used, the cock is composed 
of about six sheaves, weighing 55 lbs. each ; but with the small 
maize ten sheaves are adopted, these weighing only 35 to 45 lbs. 
each. When it is intended to preserve maize in this fashion, it 
is never cut until it is in flower, otherwise it rapidly decays. 
The sheaves, as they stand in cocks, are tied round the head, 
and sometimes they are covered with a second lot of sheaves, 
which are tied in a similar manner, the latter protecting the 
former, and yet so arranged that air passes freely through 
