466 Suggestions for Stock-feeding in the Winter of 1893-94. 
up until after Midsummer, whilst harvest was not ended until 
long after Michaelmas. 
This has, indeed, been a trying season for the English farmer. 
The fall of 1892 was very wet, and it was with great difficulty 
that the autumn wheat could be sown. A month’s exceedingly 
severe frost, with very little snow, set in on Christmas Eve, and 
the stiffest land at the end of January seemed likely to work 
beautifully. But a drenching February counteracted all the 
pulverising and beneficial effects of the long dry frost, and from 
the early days of March there was scarcely any rain for three 
months. The soaked and sodden land was soon converted into 
adamantine clods, and the consequence was that upon all reten- 
tive and unkind soils, spring grain was planted in a rough and 
rubbly seed-bed. 
The result of the drought was most serious upon the cereal 
crops. Wheat stood the trial best, but, being a thin plant which 
had no opportunity of tillering in the spring, the crop is not 
equal to the yield of most dry seasons. The straw is unusually 
short, but of good quality, and is generally well harvested. 
The straw of the spring grain is still shorter, but, having so 
many green stems in it, should make good fodder. The first 
haysel was almost a total failure, and certainly not one-fourth 
of the usual weight of hay was cut on the arable lands. 
Second cuts of clover, and some late cow grasses and pastures 
which had been fed late, produced satisfactory August hay, 
and upon many low-lying meadows there was a good and 
heavy swathe. Where this latter hay has been well secured it 
will prove much better than the usual second crops, for the fine 
grasses and clovers hardly grew at all before Midsummer. 
The dry spring was fatal to a full plant of mangel. Where 
a fair braird was secured, the mangel stood the early drought 
bravely, and revelled in the rains and heat of July and August. 
It should prove a good crop where the ground is covered, but 
taking East Anglia through there is not half a crop. Swedes are 
better, but still there are many districts that have a poor plant, 
and as the majority of the swedes did not come up until some 
weeks after they were drilled, the weight per acre must be small. 
Moreover, the glorious harvest weather of August told against 
the early swedes, and a dry autumn will certainly produce 
mildew and curtail the growth of all root-crops. Turnips are a 
much more regular plant, and generally promise to be a fair 
crop. The acreage of white turnips will be much larger than 
usual, for, besides the numerous fields which were intended for 
early roots, and could not be sown until after the midsummer 
rains, many fields of mangel and swedes which failed have 
