403 Suggestions for Stock-feeding in the Winter of 1893-94. 
was intended for wheat, and taking a second crop of barley where 
the young seeds have failed. For 1 cwt. of nitrate of soda and 
2 cwt. of mineral superphosphate per acre (which should not 
cost more than 14s.) are almost certain to produce a better crop 
of barley than many which have been grown this year. One 
great advantage of keeping the old leys down will be the valu- 
able feed they will throw up in the autumn, especially if well 
dressed with farm manure, and they may be also fed in the 
spring much more closely than would be safe with the younger 
seeds. Having a smaller acreage of wheat next year may be no 
great loss, and then next season the two-year-old leys may come 
in for wheat to be followed by barley, so as to have the desired 
two corn crops in four years, and to restore the field to the 
sacred “ four-course shift.” 
Most of the late and second crops of hay will have been 
secured during the fine hot weather of August, but we have 
reason to expect, should the autumn remain open, and continue 
mild and damp, a great growth of all kinds of grass and weeds 
until late in the year, as the ground must be thoroughly heated 
by the tropical warmth of the brilliant summer. Every blade 
of coarse grass, not only that which grows under trees in pas- 
tures, but even in plantations, and the very rushes and other 
weeds off banks, ditches, borders, and dykes, should be cut and 
made into silage. An amusing lot of tall talk was indulged 
in by some early and sanguine supporters of the process of 
ensilage, and we were told that the veriest rubbish put into a 
silo would be converted into most nutritious food. Only last 
month the Board of Agriculture informed us that “ fern and 
bracken may be put into a silo,” but it was wisely silent as to 
the value of the silage they would produce. On the other hand, 
many good farmers who have never tried ensilage are terribly 
prejudiced against it, mainly on account of the unpleasant 
smell, and one rural sanitary authority last year gave notice 
that a silo must be closed in consequence of its “ offensive 
effluvia,” although it was a quarter of a mile away from the 
nearest cottage. But it is a curious fact that, notwithstanding 
the sickening scent of sour silage and its exceedingly nasty look, 
all stock come to eat it readily, and, even when the mouldy outside 
portion is thrown into the yard for manure, a good part of it 
is eagerly devoured by pigs. But to suppose that the curing 
process which the forage undergoes in the silo or clamp greatly 
augments its nutritive value is a mistake, though it certainly 
does this — it renders sour grass and rank herbage, that stock 
would not look at in a green state, so palatable that they will 
eat it with relish in the winter. When good clover and the 
