GREEN FODDER FOR CATTLE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 497, 27 October 1871, Page 1 (Supplement)

GREEN FODDER FOR CATTLE.

The experiment is now being made in Victoria of cultivating the gram or cooltie seed ( dolirhos unijlorus ) of India for green fodder. From the description given it seems to be a plant peculiarly adapted for this part of New Zealand. A correspondent, writing to the Australasian, gives some extract s from the report, dated the 31st of March, 1870, of the Madras Government Experimental Farm. The farm is situate a few miles from Madras ; “ It is a hardy plant, and thrives in the poorest soil The soils in this district contain a very small proportion of lime, and this plant, like all leguminous plants, requires a good deal of lime before it can mature its seed. It has been proved by experiment that, unless the manure applied contains a considerable percentage of lime, the tendency of the plant under better cultivation is to produce leaf rather than seed. This tendency has been utilised, and by deeper cultivation and the application of a moderate dressing of manure, we have succeeded in growing good fodder. “ During the past eight months, on this farm, we have cultivated nearly twenty acres of gram simply for green fodder, and, though the weather during the past six months has been extremely dry, the results have considerably exceeded our expectations. In proof that our circumstances are not of a favorable character, I need only mention that our soil contains eighty-nine per cent, of sand, and that, with the exception of a shower on the 17th of February, we have not had a drop of rain during the past sixteen weeks Our first crop was sown on the 3rd of August, and we commenced cutting it on the 13th of October. The yield was 15,6421b., or 4tons 15cwt. 81b. per acre. The crop was ready for cutting at least two weeks before it was harvested. i’he actual time required in coming to maturity was, therefore, only two months. “The crop should becut immediately the flower appears, and removed from the ground at once The land should then be ploughed and re-sown on the same day, It is very necessary to sow immediately after ploughing, for if the moisture is allowed to escape the gram will remain a long time in the soil without germinating. Once get the gram above the ground, and the crop is comparatively safe. When cut before maturing its seed, the cultivation of gram improves, rather than impoverishes, the soil. True, there will be a slight loss in the mineral constituents of the soil; still, as this plant appropriates such a large amount of atmospheric food, and stores it away in its roots, and as these roots, weighing from 8001b. to 1,300.b. per acre, are left in the soil, its condition must be improved. “ Gram fodder may be made into hay. When well made, the hay has a pleasant aromatic smell, and it is readily eaten by horses.. Five crops, grown without any rain-fall, gave an average yield of 6,2001b. an acre “ The seed may be sown at the rate of 351b. per acre, in lines twenty inches apart, and about two inches deep in the soil. So much for gram as a fodder crop. “To obtain a seed crop the land should not be highly manured, if manured at all. Such is the practice of the natives of India. Indeed, they cultivate the p'aut for nothing but the seed, and generally on poor ground, merely scratched over by the native plough, which has no mould board, and does not penetrate more than three or four inches into the soil.” A distribution of small parcels of the seed Inis been made from the office of the Australasian, and, referring thereto, the editor writes:—“ The seed brought to us by Mr Graham Mitchell, from Madras, differs greatly from gram in size, shape, and general appearance, and he states that it is vastly preferred by horsekeepers. We recommend that, in cool districts, it be not sown until November."