SUMMER FORAGE CROPS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 225, 23 September 1898, Page 3

SUMMER FORAGE CROPS.

Although ia this climate serious consequences to the farmer are seldom experienced JromdroughfcstilVthereare i'ew summers when loss to the dairy farmer is not caused from scarcity of feed for at least several weeks of the season. Such loss is almost always avoidable by a little foresight in providing summer green fodder, .crops for the cows when the pastures become more or less burnt up. In the Auckland province especially there is no difficulty in providing such forage, for while the climate is usually moist enough in early summer to give any green crop a fair start and a good Jaold of the ground, it is also warm enough to allow semi-tropical forage plants such as maize and sorghum to •flourish, which can withstand long ispells of dry weather and yet remain green and succulent. It is usually :raere carelessness, I believe, a tendency to trust a good deal to luck •which makes so many of our farmers make lit'le cr no provision for summer forage i-yc their cows and other live jßtock. They have plenty of grass for the early months of summer and don't think of the .need later on for green fodder crops until it is too late to put them in. I may therefore be excused for reminding them that from now until December is the time to put in crops for a summer supply of green forage. Next month the first sowing of maize can go in, and later on a breadth of sorghum should be sown.

Maize, for green food, can be simply ploughed in after being- sown broadoast at the rate of a bushel of seed, or a little more if preferred, to the acre. 1 have known very g-ood crops of green maize grown when ploughed in under a four inch furrow from a grass sod; but a surer way is to give the land a previous ploughing and harrowing before sowing. The heaviest yields are obtained when the maize is drilled in on prepared ground as though it was to be grown for a grain crop; but the rows cmn, of course, be closer. This plan'" also economises sfifedf The soil must be in good heart for maize; and the best period to use it for feeding purposes is when the gTains begin to get firm on the cobs. At this time it is at its most nutritious stage ns green forage. Sorghum is n, crop not nearly enough appreciated in this district, where it will, with a little care at first to keep weeds down, grive very heavy yields of fodder of tli' highest value for milk production. It seems to be unaffected by the hottest weather once it is well established. The best sort to sow is Early Amber, which is both a heavy cropper and rich in saccharine, which much enhances its merits for the feeding- of milking cows. Experiments in America last year show that sorghum can be fed off as it stands by cattle, and if eaten off about six weeks after coming up it will make a luxuriant second growth, heavier than the first. But this is a somewhat wasteful method of utilising the crop after it reaches a good height because the cows will break down and trample under foot a great proportion of the succulent stalks. Sorghum is at its best for feeding purposes from about two and a-haJf feet high until just before the seed heads are formed. Sown broadcast from 32 to 16 Tb of- seed is usually used here, but a much thicker seeding is practised in the western states of America. When drilled in, which is the best method of growing the crop, as little as 6 pounds of seed to the acre will suffice. There should be sufficient space between the drills to use the scarifier or horse-hoe between them to keep down the weeds while the plants are small. For a while the growth made is slow, and thus the weeds in some land get a chance to smother.the young sorghum, which is fatal to a satisfactory crop. There is little use in sowing sorghum until the ground is warm, and the days and nights also, for it will make little progress during chilly weather. Sown as late as December it will do well if there are rains to give it a start. Another grand stand-by for summer feeding when the paddocks become parched is ensilage. Next month is the time to make an ensilage stack ot any wholesome green material you have. The burr-clover, makes grand ensilage, as j have stated before in this eSlumn. In Taranaki large ensilage stacks have been made of green Scotch thistles while in their soft growth before flowering, lhe lermentative process which vegetation undergoes in an ensilage stack seems to make almost any kind of vegetable material palatable to stock. The common bracken fern has been turned into ensilage in Scotland Any surplus crops of green oats which are no longer required when the early summer grass comes on can be Profitably put into the ensilage stack, alonff ™th any rough grass, clover or anything else that may be available. This sila^e about February or early March when feed is short P^t^ £ keeping up the milk flow. There is notfcng better worth P«^ n**£ than a supply of green fodder during the hot dr? week! of late summer.