A WONDERFUL FODDER PLANT.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVI, Issue 40, 2 November 1909, Page 7

A WONDERFUL FODDER PLANT.

MERITS OF THE CHOU MOELLIER

The following information has been supplied by Mr C. A. Grainger, Kiri-t-aki, concerning the new fodder plant, Chou Moellier: "To those who contem. plate I will give the method. I adopted and which has yielded most satisfactory results. 'Chou Moellier' is a species of giant cabbage and consequently a very greedy feeder, and of course the richer your soil is and the more manure you can give them, the bigger will be the yield and the heavier the crop of leaves they will produce. Prepare a seed-bed with well-rotted farm manure and sow the seed thinly in drills 10 inches to 12 inches apart, same as if you were growing drumhead cabbage. Keep the soil moved between the drills after the plants' are up to invigorate their growth, and let them stay in the bed till they are good, strong, sturdy plants. The land we used has been in crop for four years and is a very light loam. We ploughed it very deeply and disc harrowed it well and then threw it into ridges. The drills are six chains long, and I put three loads of farm manure into every four drills. We found that by making four drills at a time it was possible to spread the manure along them from the drays and without taking the drays and horses on to the ridges. Split the ridges each night so as to keep the manure from drying, and when all finished give them a stroke with the drag harrows up and down the drills, then roll them the same way. This made the same lines of manure easily discernible from end to end and quite easy to follow when transplanting. As soon as the plants were large enough we arranged with a couple of men to help transplant them, and we never missed an opportunity; every bit of moist, showery weather was utilised for getting them out, and the way the young 'Chous' stood the transplanting was most enoouraging, not more than a dozen having to. be replaced. It is advisable to have them transplanted in time to get the benefit of the best growing months. I am firmly convinced that the 'Chou Moellier' is one, if not the very best, of fodder plants that we can grow. It produces an enormous weight of vegetable food, and every bit but the very root is eatable. Numbers of the plants have grown 5 and 6 feet high and 3 and 4 inches through the stalk. All farm animals seem to be fond of it, even the horses. We are feeding a dray load every two days to 70 odd pigs, and with a small daily allowance of horse beans they are growing and thriving splendidly and the breeding sows are looking better than they have ever done on Swede turnips. The soft fleshy ■substance inside of the stalk seems especially to be a sweet morsel with the pigs. In grow, ing this plant it will be found that at a certain stage in its growth the large leaves will commence to wither, and drop off. As soon as this is noticed start j breaking the bottom leaves off and ooli lect them and feed the stock or "pigs, otherwise a large percentage of tine I growth will be wasted, M ~