The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1887.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2380, 11 October 1887, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1887.

U; v/'ilW.i, .-r A..He ut T religion; or

Till-: arrangements made with the creameries of the Freezing Company in Waikato are for a supply of milk to the end of May, hut the creameriesfwill he open for the reception of milk at a higher price daring the four winter months, ft, is optional wilh the milk-suppliers whether they will continue to send milk to

the creamery during these four months, hut, however they mav dispose of it, the fanners should lay t hemselves out to produee as large a supply as possible of milk during the winter. If the price oll'ered for the milk by the company is no! considered sullicient there is a u-jo'l and ready ordinary market for butler during this period, and then; is no fear that it will spoil, as in .summer, on their hands. The winter, indeed, should he the dairymans harvest time. It is simplv a question of feed, and the present season of the year is that in which the, farmer must take the necessary steps to secure it. About, Auckland, and to the north of it, there is little difficulty in the matter, as green crops grow right through the year, but in Waikato the farmer has frosts and severer weather to contend with, and cannot rely upon crops of green oats, vetches, Cape barley, and the like, in winter time. They will, however, sec him through the dry autumn till winter arrives, and for that he must make special provision. If Cape barley and oats will not stand the Waikato frost, there are carrots, sugar-beets, and mangolds, and, above all, there is the silo to fall hack upon. It is to the use of this comparatively modern invention for preserving green fodder sweet into the winter that we have entered upon these remarks. Tried hy Capt. Rutherford at To Awamutu last year, it proved eminently successful. Even in the coldest parts of America and at Homo it has proved the best winter friend to stock of all kinds. Nor need the silo be an expensive affair. It needs to be dry and air proof. It may be simply a hole in the ground beneath the barn-floor, or in a dry gully bank, with slabbed or boirded sides, and a hoard or cement door or bottom, so long as it is kept perfectly dry, and when closed with the wooden lid and covered with soil, perfectly air-tight. A farmer would make one or more silos, according to the number of stock ho intended to feed, hut they may ho made to hold a largo quantity of green fodder when trodden closely in. Some cut the feed, especially maize, into inch lengths, hut this has been proved to bo unnecessary. Nor need the silo bo filled up and covered in at once. On tho contrary, fermentation proceeds better when tho silo is tilled up at short irregular iuter-

vals. Writing on the subject to tho American Agriculturalist, a correspondent says; I had ton loads of second crop, throe of barley, oats, and pea vines, thirtythree of maize fodder, forty-six loads in all, and was twenty-three days in tilling the silo. Part of the second crop, he goes on to say, (meadow grass presumably) was wot when put into tho silo, as it had lain out in the rain and fog four days. Tho work of tilling this silo was commenced on tiro 116 th August, and finished on tho 17th September. Two days afterwards a cover of boards was put on the top of tho ensilage, and on the top of tho boards six inches of sand. Tho silo was idled just as time cotdd bo spared for it from other work. On some days one load, on other days half-a-dozen loads, being cut and damped in, and two or three days were skipped before more was added. When opened on tho l-llli of December in the following winter tho ensilage was found in excellent condition, all except the top three inches, bettor than in a preceding year when it had|been cut into inch and a half pieces, tramped, and weighted down with twice the quantity of sand. The silo was built in tho ground, with hemlock square edge hoards just as they came from, the mill, double boarded with building paper between the boards, with cement bottom and partly below the barn floor.

Barley, oats, and second crop are recommended as a good mixture, being a perfect ration for cows and sheep, but vetches, rye, green maize, sorghum and other plants such as lucerne and sainfoin make excellent additions to the silo pit. The feed comes out perfectly fresh and green, and is oaten with avidity by the cattle. With a moderate supply of hay, a couple of good silos, and with carrots and sugar beets it would be no more difficult to keep the dairy in full swing in the Autumn and Winter mouths than at any other time of the year, ami with this advantage that good butter, is in these months worth double the money. No better crop for siloing could be. grown than vetches sown down with oais which keep the vetches from trailng on the ground, and these should be cut while the vetches are in full bloom, and the oats arc coming into haw. Though not so grand a soiling plant as lucerne, vetches can bo grown without the depth of soil and working tiiat the former plant requires. Cape barley, oats and meadow grass, however, arc within the range of every farmer’s operations, and will fully meet all requirements. But still more simple than the plan of building silos in the ground was that resorted to by Captain Rutherford at Te Awamutu, described in our issue of the. 1 Bfch August. Green maize was the crop operated upon, and it was simply built into a stack some 18ft by 12ft. Wooden planks, 9 x 2, were laid along the Hat top, on which were then piled bags of soil to press die mass closely together. The whole was then topped with straw and thatched. With the exception of a few inches in from the top, and a foot in from the sides, the ensilage was found in excellent condition when opened up the first week in August, H will thus be seen that where, from want of a. naturally dry soil or means of drainage, silos,’.such as referred to as being used in .America and at Home, cannot be readily built, the farmer can put a crop of green stuff into stack with nearly, if not quite, as good a result. Of course, in the Inf ter case the

crop would have to he. carted at the out; time into the stack, and not like the underground silo, he filled up with odds and ends of green crops at the fanner’s convenience. Whichever plan, however, is adopted, the silo will he found a most useful ad junct to every farm, supplying a quantity of rich .succulent green fond in winter when there is little else than hay, which cannot with advantage he fed by itself to milch cows. As we have, said, the winter months should he the dairyman’s harvest time. But in either case, whether the milk goes to the creamery or into the farmer's own dairy, it is essential that lie should he in a position to continue dairying operations uniformly throughout the year, and not miss that portion of it when butter is at its highest price, commands a readier market, and is more easily handled than in summer. With hay and suitable root crops, and with the aid of the “silo,” there is no reason that lie should not be able to do this.