28 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
rn 
silege crops. Cowpeas are often recom- 
mended as a heavy yielding 
fodder crop. 
In warmer localities cowpeas undoubt- 
edly are valuable. On the lower South 
Coast the writers’ experiences of this 
crop grown on good land were far from 
profitable. 
For a summer catch crop Hungarian 
millet is a success, can be harvested 
within ten weeks of sowing, yields a fine 
flaggy hay much relished by calves and 
cattle ; it also makes excellent silage. 
For winter green feed, oats and Cape 
barley hold pride of place. 
Of the varieties of oats, when a crop of 
hay is looked for, Algerian is the best, 
being comparatively from rust attack. 
Tartarian is the better variety for actual 
green feed, also makes a good hay, but is 
very liable to rust. 
Cape barley is relished as green fodder 
by stock; has no value as hay on account 
of the dangerous and disagreeable beard. 
Rye flourishes better on poor country 
than oats or barley. As a green feed 
stock eat it readily; has no value as hay. 
When oats or barley receive a fair start, 
summer 
and are fed off when from 8to 10 inches - 
high, as many as two, and, during very 
favourable seasons, three feedings can be 
got from the one sowing with an 
additional ton tothe acre crop of hay 
from the oats. 
When 
oats or 
cut with a scythe or mower, 
barley die out during frosty 
If a subsequent feeding or hay 
crop is desired, cows must be allowed to 
do the mowing by grazing. 
In feeding off allow the milkers from 
an hour to an hour and a-half every 
morning on thecrop. Some farmers herd 
the cattle while grazing, confining them 
in rotation to cetain sections of crop. 
This had better be done when paddock 
has been sown at intervals of a week or a 
fortnight, the green stuff being more 
advanced in growth on the early-sown 
portions of the field. When crop is all 
of one sowing and growth the cows may 
be left. to themselves for the usual hour; 
they are too busy feeding for this short 
period to wander far and trample under 
foot much of the green stuff. Cows fed 
weather. 
in this way, and given a reasonable. 
allowance of hay at night, will freshen up 
wonderfully in their milk. 
Oats being a soft bulky food, cow 
rations needs building up with a more 
concentrated fodder. Hay assists in 
regulating the bowels, thus preventing 
scouring, and in a way balancea the 
ration. 
In the winter crops can be sown from 
March to May, and for early spring feed 
as late as June. 
To obtain best results when feeding 
cows it is advisable to chaff and feed all 
fodder from troughs. In feeding chaffed 
ensilege troughs are absolutely necessary. 
When cattle are fed in this way their 
allowance of ensilege, maize or sorghum 
can be balanced up to a full milk making 
ration by the addition of concentrates, 
in the form of lucerne, oaten, or meadow 
hay, bran or oilcaké as the case may be. 
To obtain best results from a milking 
cow this balanced ration is necessary. 
A cow may be given as much ensilego 
as she can eat and still not be milking 
up to what her average would be if run- 
ning on good grass. 
Ensilege, green maize, or sorghum are 
the bulky cheap appetite satisfying foods, 
but are deficient in protein—the 
necessary milk making element. 
To get this protein for a heavy yield of 
milk from say ensilege, the cow would 
have to do the impossible and consume 
perhaps twice the weight of fodder she 
was capable of eating in the twenty-four 
hours. 
To balance the ration the feeder re- 
duces the bulky food, substituting an 
equal weight of the more expensive con- 
centrated article and keeps on adding 
this food rich in protein and reducing 
the bulky, while the cow responds by 
increasing in her milk flow. When this 
point is reached no further addition of 
expensive fodder would make the cow 
milk any better. 
During winter and dry spells every 
farmer should endeavour to feed his fresh 
milking cows a. balanced ration. This 
ration is not needed in the case of dry 
stock or cows nearly dry, they can be 
kept in good condition when fed solely 
som ensilage. — 
November 2 1908 
By feeding ensilage or bully food at 
night, and hay during the day, or vice 
versa, fairly good results will be got. 
Tf possible choose sheltered hilly 
country for the feeding ground. Lay 
the fodder out in long thin lines; if 
dumped out in heaps, the cattle trample 
and spoil fully half the feed. Change 
direction of lines daily, this helps keop . 
fodder clean. 
By chain harrowing the manure on 
feeding ground during damp weather, 
dung is broken up, rubbish cleaned 
away, and the growth of grass on such 
places when spring sets in will be greatly 
accelerated. 
Grow fodder, and in abundant seasons 
conserve the surplus. The days of dairy 
squatting are done. Good dairy country 
becomes dearer and more difficult to 
obtain every year. 
’ To make ends meet the farmer must 
get more milk from his cows; this ca 
n 
only be done by feeding. 
Cow With Four Calves. 
Mrs. T. Finn, Edenholme, Harden 
New South Wales, writes to the ‘ Austra- 
lasian’:—' I send you particulars of an 
instance of fecundity in a cow th tI 
think must be nearly a record. On the 
25th ult. a three year-old cow of mine 
gave birth to four calves, all well grown ‘ 
perfectly developed, and apparently fully 
matured, although the cow was not due 
to calve for another 21 days. The cow is 
a Jersey-Ayrshire cross, the sire of the 
quartet being a well-bred Jersey bull, 
The calves had been born alive, but 
owing to the very cold weather, and the 
cow choosing a very damp gully to calve 
in, and the fact that almost two days 
elapsed before being found, they all died. 
There were two bulls and two heifers ; 
the united weight of the four was 114lb. 
The cowhad one calf previously. She 
was in rather a bad way for a few days» 
but is recovering. I have had a long 
experience amongst stock, and have 
never seen or heard of a similar number — 
of calves at one birth, and neither has - 
anyone of scores of people who have 
viewed the calves,” 
