272 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
I March 87, 1890. 
ENSILAGE. 
In our farm work note last week one or two hints were given 
about the sowing of special fodder crops now for conversion into 
silage in July. This was mentioned as an ordinary detail of farm 
work, but a little thought subsequently brought conviction that it 
is by no means a part of ordinary farm practice, that silage stacks 
are stiU an uncommon thing at farm homesteads, and that the 
matter was of such importance as to be worthy of more prominent 
notice. 
For ensilage to supplant either haymaking or root crops, or 
both, its real value must be ascertained by actual experience ; and 
this little golden bit of practical knowledge, this new influence 
upon the prosperity of agriculture, should no longer be left in the 
region of doubtful things, but be tried out by every farmer, and 
more especially the.heavy land men. To farm strong land at all 
now requires extraordinary ability if it is to be done successfully, 
and if only a tithe of the pains bestowed upon root culture in such 
land were given to ensilage, the certain resultant benefit would ensure 
its speedy adoption ; for root culture in a clay soil is always a 
speculative matter, and root crops are so expensive that they 
would certainly be avoided altogether if only farmers knew how 
to do it. 
Let us briefly glance at the advantages of ensilage. Given the 
materials it enables us to ensure an ample provision of winter food 
for cattle, horses—aye, and sheep too, for even lambs will eat and 
thrive upon it. Silage is at least as wholesome, nutritious, and 
palatable as the best meadow hay, and it is cheaper than hay or 
any other cattle ^food, for not only is the bulk of it per acre 
much greater than any other stored forage, but the process of 
ensilage is so simple, and withal so sure, that the entire outlay 
involved consists in the cost of mowing, carting, stacking, and 
pressing the forage. Costly means of compression may be 
avoided. The first silage we made was pressed with boxes filled 
with iron slag—gravel or sand would have answered equally well, 
and on page 166 a correspondent tells how he had made good silage 
of aftermath stacked and pressed by bricks. We have only to 
try and get as full and bulky a crop as we can, and we can mow, 
cut and stack it whether wet or dry, only we must be careful to 
put on the pressure at once. That is all; can anything be more si m pie ? 
Of crops suitable for ensilage besides meadow grass there are 
Lucerne, Tares, Oats, Rye, Italian Rye Grass, mixed layers of 
grasses and Clovers and Trifolium, Two bushels of Tares and 
2 bushels of Oats per acre make an excellent mixture for silage, or 
we might use only a bushel of Tares and add a bushel of Italian 
Rye Grass. As we pointed out last week, by sowing at once the 
crop would be ready for stacking in July, so that it might be 
cleared, the silage made, and the land prepared for Wheat before 
the corn harvest begins. The cost, anxiety and uncertainty of root 
culture would thus be avoided and an ample provision be made for 
winter of sound nutritious food. 
The cheapness of hay during the past winter ought not to 
induce carelessness about ensilage. The abundance of good hay 
made last year cannot make us forget the lamentable failure of 
the supply after the wet summer of 1888. W^e are now using for 
litter a stack of 1888 hay, which we had to take in valuation last 
Michaelmas. The owner of this stack of spoilt hay could neither 
use nor sell it, and so got a trifle in valuation when he left his 
occupation. Had it been made into silage it would have been 
just as valuable for home consumption as the best hay. A wet 
season or two would tend more to popularise ensilage than any¬ 
thing else. Yet we cannot but regret the general slowness to 
adopt a process that is so eminently calculated to promote the. 
general good. 
We have given root culture a fair trial at a clay farm for four 
consecutive years. A considerable quantity of white Turnips,. 
Swedes, and Mangolds have been grown every year, but we have 
not had a full crop of all of them in any one year. Last year it 
was the Mangolds which failed us, and we did not get more than 
half a crop. The bailiff was loud in his complaints about inferior 
seed, but we could not agree with him, for our seed order was sent 
to an excellent firm who supplied all our farms, and as usual the 
result was very much in accordance with the nature and condition 
of the soil in which the seed was sown, with the exception that on 
the light land of the home farm the Mangold crop was for once 
superior to that of the mixed soil farm, owing to the fact of the 
season being so favourable for light land. The soil of the heavy 
land farm that is so inimical to the growth of roots yields heavy 
crops of most forage plants— ergo, a greater area of that farm has 
been devoted to forage crops of all kinds year by year, and there 
has been a proportionate curtailment of root crops. By ensilage 
we are always able to insure an ample supply of winter food ; but 
we do not go to a ridiculous extreme with it, but make some hay, 
graze a considerable number of home-bred cattle and sheep, and 
harvest as much Clover and Sainfoin seed as we can. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
In top-dressing winter corn some judgment is required, because the 
condition of the plant now should be our guide in what is done. Our 
knowledge of the condition of the soil too must also have its due in¬ 
fluence upon our decision, and there should be no line and rule work 
at all in the use of manure. When a recipe of the best chemical 
manures is given for a top-dressing it becomes a matter for each in¬ 
dividual to decide upon. Do all or any of my Wheat fields require such 
help now ? If the land has the benefit of thorough cultivation, if no¬ 
crop has been sown for some time with a manure dressing, and if the 
plant of the present crop by its robust vigorous appearance shows that 
the soil is rich in fertility, then let us by all means let well alone, and 
reserve the manure for some other purpose. But if the fertility of the 
soil is low or even doubtful, and the plant though healthy enough is 
somewhat weak, then apply a top-dressing at once. Or if a yellow 
failing plant conveys unmistakeably to the eye intelligence of the 
presence of wireworm, then top-dress at once and follow with a cross¬ 
bill roller,which if it does not crush the wireworm serves, at any rate, to 
close the soil and so check its depredations that the plant under the 
fillip of the manure grows out of harm’s way before the wireworm can 
get at it again. 
Lent corn has gone in well, Barley especially having quite a model 
seed bed for once both in the autumn ploughed land and in recent 
ploughings after the sheep folds. The temptation to sow this favourite 
crop is more than usually great, but pray remember, Mr. Heavy Land 
Farmer, that though you may have got a heavy seed bed, yet how often 
has your Barley failed through unkind weather at critical stages of its- 
development later on. Why, therefore, stick to a crop which has so 
often failed you ? Rather, much rather, sow a good sample of Black 
Tartar Oat, and do try not only to do yourself some good, but also t& 
raise the shamefully low average of this much abused and neglected 
crop. The ordinary average of the Oat crop in Great Britain is 
30 bushels per acre, the possible average is more than twice that quantity. 
Need we point the moral 1 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATION?, 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 38'40''N.; LonR. 0° 8'0" W.; Altitude, lUJeeb 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 1 IN THE DAT. 
(3 
•3 
1890. 
March. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32® 
and Sea 
Level. 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
£3 . 
o-d 
S a 
5'S 
is:: 
H 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature, 
Radiation 
Temperatnre 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min, 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass 
Sunday.16 
Monday...... 17 
Tuesday .... 18 
Wednesday.. 19 
Thursday..., 20 
Friday .21 
Saturday .... 22 
Inches. 
29.265 
2J).3»2 
2‘).4f'5 
29.453 
29.392 
29.612 
29.772 
dej?. 
51.3 
42.2 
40.6 
41.6 
86.7 
39.8 
42.9 
del?. 
47.8 
39.9 
38.2 
41.2 
86.7 
37.9 
42.2 
S.E. 
E. 
E. 
N.E. 
N. W. 
W. 
s. w. 
del?. 
42.2 
42.9 
41.9 
41.9 
41.7 
4().6 
40.8 
dejjr. 
58.2 
.58.3 
52.1 
45.0 
43.3 
62.9 
53.7 
dei?. 
43.2 
36.6 
33.2 
89.7 
34.1 
82.7 
34.1 
dei?. 
93.9 
97.8 
94.9 
64.1 
51.9 
98.1 
9i.8 
deg. 
36.4 
31.9 
27.8 
36.1 
83.1 
28.1 
29.1 
In. 
0.14? 
0.471>» 
O.lOf)- 
0.<f2‘) 
0.02S 
29.480 
42.1 j 40.6 i 
41.7 
51.2 
36.2 
85.6 
31.8 
0.764 
REMARKS. 
16th.—Sprinkles ol rain tit 7 and 9.15 A.M., and in afternoon, otherwise generally bright. 
17th.—Brilliant morning, fine pleasant afternoon. 
18th.—Cloudy early, bright day; shower In evening. 
19th.—Wet till 10 A.M., then cloudy, and occasional drizzle in afternoon. 
2iith.—Very wet all morning, then anil, damp and showery. 
Slst.—Bright early, then cloudy and spots of rain at 11 A.M.; fine afternoon with occa¬ 
sional sunshine. 
22nd.—Wet eariy, cloudy from 9 to II A.M., then fine and bright; solar halo at 8 P.M. 
and spots of rain in late evening. 
A damp week, with low barometer and temperature near the average.—G, J. STMONS. 
