RAPE OR KALE?

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 492, 27 April 1909, Page 10

RAPE OR KALE?

d ARE SHEEP THE BEST JUDGES? ® A CONTRADICTION. A photograph and letter from a corresi. pondent signed ''Grazier," which appeared i, "I. Tni! Dominion on April 19 have been criticised by a'Canterbury authority. Speaking 'to'a Dominion representative, this gentleman. said that the statements made ) by "Grazier," if ■ left'uncontradicted, were calculated to do great injury to sheep- ; farmers, because the contention made there 8 was entirely wrong. . ' , "In the first place," said the Canterbury i» man, "'Granier states that, • becauso his sheep ate down, tho in preference to the kale, therefore it was the .bfist feed, because tlio sheep wero tho best judges./ Now, the sheep are not the best-judges- of what 'is good' for them. This has,been 'shown' con- . clusivcly by Professor Lowrio, late of Lin-. 1 coin College,. and by others ; and; Professor ' Lowrio raised tho best fat lambs in,, New ' Zealand. He . stated ,tliat'. kale .' was prefcr- . able.' -It has a-far greater,, fattening power than rape. Not only in .regard to rape and kale/Jbut also in : regard to''certain : grasses ' and .other forage "plants, sheep; will "often r .neglect'the fattening plants ■ and eat the I; others,' possibly ,becausc they; are more pal- . atablo.' Anyone 'who' lias .properly , tested . kale.'/will never go back to rape. It will - not grow, every where,; but. jt : -is" grown largely . in Canterbury, arid there are - very few. > places" in'thd; North 'Island .where. it will not ' succeed; On -tho Bla'smiro Estate, Ashburj tori,; they ;t grow hundreds of acres of kale, | and, last year, they sent away their lambs ' averaging close on 401b., fattened chiefly.on kale." ' '- "