Autumn Fodder.

Feilding Star, Volume XIX, Issue 150, 22 December 1897, Page 2

Autumn Fodder.

In a season like the present, when the 2>asturcs io a great part of the colony are already bare, and the hay crop may be accounted a failure, the growth of quickly maturing fodder crops is of great importance to the stock farmer. Maize is one of the most suitable crops for this purpose. There is a prejudice against it in the youth Island, but the most approved Canadian varieties are perfectly adapted to the New Zealand climate, and if sown at once can be depended upon to supply a large yield of fodder for use in the fresh state or preservation as ensilage before the frosts come. Maize is one of the simplest of crojis to grow, and will thrive on almost any soil, though warm, alluvial land i« preferred. A good seed-bed should be; prepared, and the seed can be evther plovighed in or broadcasted. The quantity of seed used per acre should not exceed 1J bushels, where it is distributed after the plough in every other furrow, or 18in apart, but where broadcasted 2 bushels to 2\ bushels an acre may be required. Superposphate at the rate of 2cwt or 3cwt per acre, harrowed in with seed, will be liberally responded to. Tbe [ crop should be ready to cut within three months, and may either be fed to stock or converted into ensilage for winter and spring use instead of hay. Tares drilled now in rows eight inches apart, one and a half bushels taren and one bushel oats, will bo ready for use in March. Oats alone, sown thickly, will also come in by March, aad hare the advantage that that they can be fed oft' or mown for green fodder, for hay or for ensilage. Crimson clover is a valuable fodder. A Courtenay subscriber who grew this plant last season on our recommendation sowed in March 101 b Crimson cover, half bushel oats and ] bushel tares to the acre; it wan April before any rain came, but be got abundance of feed for tbe winter. Last autumn be sowed down twenty. five acres with Poverty Bay ryegr&as, and in tbe spring it carried sixteen sheep to the acre. Poverty Bay ry«grass bas proved very valuable on bush laud in tbe North Island.— Press,