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On Green or Fodder Crops. 
for in this fact I see fewer " Poultry Farms " and consequent 
failures, whilst there is a better prospect of our " table " 
breeds not being handed over to the mere feather - weight 
fanciers. The fearful wave of agricultural depression now 
sweeping this country may lead to legislation and divers 
changes, it rnay be to smaller holdings or to large land asso- 
ciations ; if so, poultry-breeding will be a great feature of the 
times. 
IV. — On Green or Fodder Crops not commonly Grown, which 
have been found serviceable for Stock-Feeding. By JoSEPH 
Dakby. 
The climate of the British Isles is so very variable, that it 
ought to be accounted an extremely fortunate circumstance that 
there are so many green and fodder crops having claims to the 
favourable attention of farmers which are adapted to meet a 
wide diversity of seasons and weather incidents. Some thrive 
best in dry summers, others in damp ones. Not a few offer 
advantages in supplying early spring feed or forage, while 
another class are serviceable by affording a provision of keep 
for autumn and winter. Some are so naturally affluent in 
yielding capabilities, that half a dozen heavy cuttings may be 
taken from them in one year ; and the hardiness of a further 
series, in resisting the most Arctic and rigorous snow-blasts and 
cold, is their best recommendation for selection. 
Do farmers in general sufUciently appreciate the value of this 
wide diversity in green, root, and fodder crops which offer them- 
selves for their acceptance ? Judging by their acts and the 
ordinary policy pursued in most districts, the reply must be in 
the negative, there being very few, comparatively speaking, who 
adopt anything like a wide series of the crops referred to, the 
majority preferring to limit their consideration to those which 
can be grown at least cost and are easiest to manage. But the 
folly of putting all the eggs in one basket is sufficiently illus- 
trated if we recall to memory the great privations and losses 
which followed the failures of the turnip-plant in the drought 
years of 1864, 1868, and 1870. The depreciation in the value 
of flocks after each of these seasons, and the wholesale way in 
which sheep were sacrificed, caused painful experience, which 
thousands can never forget. Some endeavoured to obviate the 
worst accidents of the situation by the lavish employment of 
artificial foods, but this could only be done at a very heavy 
expenditure, which had to be kept up for lengthy periods. Tliose 
only enjoyed immunity from the fell swoop of the disasters 
