‘416 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Jun, 1902. 
9TH Lesson. 
THIRD STAGE. 
We will begin this lesson by looking up the 7th Lesson of the Second Book. 
I there told you something about “ Green Manuring,” and you heard that 
some farmers do not believe in this method of renewing the fertility of the 
soil, and the reasons were given for their unbelief. One was that they think 
it better to harvest the crop of cow-pea, velvet bean, maize, or peas, and feed 
stock with it than to plough it in as green manure. 
Well, if a farmer keeps a fairly large number of dairy cattle, a flock of 
sheep, a number of horses, pigs, &c., then no doubt he would be acting wisely 
by growing crops with which to feed them, and thus obtaining sufficient manure 
_ for his cultivated land. 
‘he methods adopted for feeding stock on a farm are pasturing and 
growing crops of maize, oats, barley, rye, and sorghum, which are mown before 
they come to maturity, or cow-peas, vetches, and such like plants, which are cut 
reen and are daily given to the cattle in the cowyard or in the milking-shed. 
This latter method is called “soiling” the cattle. The two systems have 
been very much debated in the old country, and even now I think it has been 
shown that they are both pretty evenly balanced. It must be largely a 
_ question, first of climate, and next of the adaptability of the land to certain 
crops, as to which is the right plan to adopt. 
Let us see where the advantage of soiling lies. In this country we grow 
_a large area of lucerne, which is not particularly well adapted for pasturing, 
but you know what an immense amount of fodder, either green or in the form 
of hay, is taken from a fertile, deep soiled lucerne field. 
At the present time of writing, whilst the dreadful drought continues 
(April, 1902), the value of lucerne is such that, were it not that valuable 
dairy stock must be kept alive, it would pay the farmer better to sell it than 
to feed it to his stock. In really good seasons, when the rainfall has been 
regular, the lucerne springs up after cutting so rapidly and so luxuriantly that 
it may be cut within five weeks of the last cutting. At such times, when 
made into hay, it has been sold as low as 25s. per ton. In consequence of the 
drought, however, it has been bringing £8, £9, and even £10 per ton to those 
farmers who are fortunate enough to have fair crops, and it pays them to sell 
it and feed the cattle on wheaten chaff and maize “ ENSILAGE”’ (of which I shall 
write by and by). 
Experiments have been made by scientific men to find out how much 
nutriment can be got out of a field of lucerne, clover, or grass by the method 
of pasturing, and how much by soiling. But it was difficult to arrive at any 
certain conclusion, because when cattle are turned into a field to graze they 
waste a great deal of fodder by trampling it into the-ground, and often they 
discover some particularly sweet patch which they will linger on until they 
have eaten it bare. Again, much grass or lucerne is destroyed by the dung 
falling on it. ; 
Still, the results showed that where a field could be mown even three 
times a year it would be better to soil the cattle on the produce than to allow 
them to eat it down, whereas, if only two cuttings could be made, pasturing 
would be the better plan. 
Now with our lucerne fields, which can be mown eight times a year, it 
would be obviously a mistake to turn cattle in to eat it down. Far better to 
mow it and feed it to them green, or as hay, or as ensilage. Then, if the cattle 
are properly housed or yarded, and the manure regularly collected, an immense 
amount of farmyard manure—the very best of fertilisers—would be the result, 
and the farmer would have the further advantage of being able to distribute 
the manure as he pleased and to distribute it evenly. Pasturing in the open 
field always results in unequal manuring of the land, because some parts, 
such as those where the cattle camp at night, are much over-manured, and 
other parts get no manure at all. 
