SILVER BEET.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1393, 20 March 1912, Page 8

SILVER BEET.

EXPERIENCE AT MOUMAHAKI, A somewhat extensive experiment .In teal" silver hei't as a fodder for eat tits and sheep is being carried out this season at i (-ho -Uoumaliaki Experiment Farm, according to the Agricultural Department's" "Journal". Sheep have taken well to the beet; and fed oil' to cows, it lias proved just as palatable to these as it. has ip sheep. Indications point to it proving a uselul milk-producing food. The Moumahaki crop was planted in well-worked soil broken out of old pasture by a digger-plough, the roller ami disc following the breaking-up process. It was seeded in drills, 2Gin. apart,at the rate of 41b. to the acre. A portion of tho crop was afterwards singled by the hoe, the plants being left lt't. apart. Tho whole of the crop was cultivated with a 'triple cultivator until the crop was too dense to work tho machine. The crop is not a particularly heavy one—about 15 tons to tho acre—but the season has been all against prolific growth. Silver beet is more of a dry-weather plant, and this season a succession* ofo storms, accompanied at times by hail and cold winds, were experienced during its growth. A distinct advantage of silver beet, so far as Moumahaki experience goes, is that it is apparently immune to blight. It is essentially a cut-and-come-again forage plant, anil makes good growth in the winter, frosts having little or no 'ch'ect on the established plant. It is contended that properly managed silver-beet will provide a constant supply of forage. Just now the experiments with this plant- at-Moumahaki are practically only in their initial stages. For instance, it has yet lo.lje proved how mush feed it will actually provide from season to season, under careful cutting, and when not allowed to be too closely grazed by stocky l'urther experiments will lje required before farmers can be recommended to avail themselves of this plant as a general farm crop. In pursuance of this, the giant variety, the German lucullus, is to be planted on a large scale at Moumahaki, so that, the practical value of this for stock feeding may be ascertained.