THE FARMERS' COLUMN.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVIII, Issue 72, 26 March 1914, Page 6

THE FARMERS' COLUMN.

(Edited by "Lucerne.") SILVER BEET FOR FODDER. Gratifying results "been obtained by Mr John Curtis, who farms* ■eighty acres at the Styx (Canterbury),.in raising silver beet for fodder purposes. Up to the beginning of last month the pastures were good, and it was not till the grass began to fail that the cows took to the beet fodder. By providing beet the milk supplied by the herd was "maintained; the milk x'eturn would have decreased but for this. On' 'half the area sown Mr Curtis sowed beet of tho £.i i-leafed, whiteskinned variety, iiu- - ds having been obtained from tT - >ra Estate; the other half-way .■". • with imported seed. -The Totau - u>te seed gave a Temarkably good or , .each plant .having a maximum oi s . ure white stem —this being the portion of iihe plant which provides the food value of silverbeet. The yield per acre of this variety was 48.89 lions, whilst that, of the imported seed was 40.62 tons. "Both varieties, were planted in the first week of November last, and the first) stripping, was made in the last week in February; it wfts anticipated that a second stripping can be made six weeks later. The land upon which the beet was grown has not been manured during the ten years that Mi* Curtis has been in occupation, of it, and it has been cropped alternately with peas and potatoes. The land! was very thoroughly cultivated before the beet was sown.