Suggestions for Stock-feeding in the Winter of 1893-94. 493 
I am hoping for a repetition of the season of 182G, respecting 
which I have heard my father say, “ There was no hay made, 
and none wanted.” 
Without indulging in theoretical ideas about this matter, I 
propose as nearly as I can to sketch the plan I intend to adopt 
in feeding my own stock through the coming winter, which I 
need hardly say I look forward to with some anxiety. 
It is too late to talk about what we can produce this season 
to help us through. Hence we have only to deal with what we 
have already got, or what we must buy. Many of us have a 
grand growth of grass, which will no doubt greatly increase yet, 
before the growing season is over, and which in ordinary times 
would be consumed on the land, but in a season like this 
should undoubtedly be cut, and made into silage if the weather 
is unsuitable for haymaking. Though grass is useful to feed on 
the land for store cattle and sheep through the autumn and 
winter, still it must not be forgotten that, so soon as the ground 
gets soft, at least 75 per cent, of such grass is trodden into the 
dirt, and utterly wasted. Again, in frosty weather, every bullock 
and sheep has five mouths, for they destroy as much with each 
hoof as they consume with their mouths. Of course, everyone 
would be careful to feed the grass on his wet ground first, before 
the land becomes sodden, and to keep his dry land for the wet 
weather, — in fact, if possible to clear his wet land altogether as 
soon as it begins to “ tread.” Even if there should be some 
grass left, this may come in most usefully in the dry months of 
February and March, when a good bite of old grass will often 
do cattle and sheep admirably, with the aid of only a small 
amount of dry food. 
Whatever the character of the winter may be, it must be more 
economical to cut anything that is enough of a crop to cut, and 
make it into silage or hay, rather than feed it on the land. The 
simple process of making stack silage, by hauling the loaded 
carts over the heap and tipping thereon, is too well known to need 
description. Then there is another system which I think might 
be carried out conveniently this year, certainly up to Christmas, 
namely, to keep a piece of latter-math, or a grazing-ground 
recently shut up, and cut and haul the grass daily to stock in 
neighbouring fields. Possibly, if heavy snow fell, the grass 
would become rotten, but more likely — as the ground is so 
dry — it would this year keep good for a considerable time, and 
I shall certainly set apart some with the object of carrying out 
this plan. I have at present (first week of September) over 
100 acres that have been shut up for a month or more; these 
will cut silage equivalent to fully 15 cwt. of hay per acre, another 
