GREEN FEED FOR DAIRY STOCK.

Otago Witness, Issue 1956, 20 August 1891, Page 6

GREEN FEED FOR DAIRY STOCK.

Tabes (Vhtchbs).

A southern subscriber writes making inquiry regarding " the best green feed for dairy oows to be used in February, March, and April." Etc further says: "In Scotland tares were considered very suitable for that purpose. I have tried them here on two occasions, and they have been almost a failure. Both times I got the seed from what are considered the first seedsmen in Dunedin and Invercargill, and they were guaranteed the real Scotch tare. They were sown on good land, specially manured, so that I might expect a good return. Of course the few oats sown amongst them were a great crop, but the tares small dwarfs." The experience of this southern dairy farmer has been that of so many others engaged in the industry during the past autumn, regarding the failure of vetches especially, and as ifc is very rapidly being recognised that forage crops must be systematically grown to ensure suocess in dairy farming, it is necessary to treat the subject at greater length than would be convenient in the Notes and Queries column. Our correspondent is perfectly correct in his statement that in Scotland tares were prominently esteemed as the main component of all green forage crops, the mixture with rye, oats, barley, or wheat being regarded as necessary only to keep the-vetoh plant from trailing on the ground. Throughout England especially, and in all the best farmed districts of Ireland, the merits of vetch forage have been endorsed by farm praotices continued for over half a century, vetches having been as much relied on in the working economy of a farm as have been root crops. Such having been the case, the question arises: how have the comparatively few trials given the crop in Otago been so various in results— for there have been successes —when in the Home Country for a generation the culture baa been a certainty, and tares have been one of the most important green crops in advanced agriculture ? The answer is, so far as this province is concerned, that they have been so little in request, and their distinctive character so little known, that no distinction has been mad<> between the seasonable varieties—winter and spru g or summer vetches. Seedsmen will boldly assure a buyer that there is no difference in characteristics of the tares usually cultivated, and they are so far in the right that winter and summer tares originated from the same species, but from long cultivation at different periods of the year, it is necessary for the colonial grower to know that the varieties have acquired very materially distinctive habits of growth. To quote the "Complete Grazier " " It is commonly said that there are two varieties of the common tare (V sativa), called the winter and spring tares. They are, however, precisely th<3 same species, bnt some having been sown in the autumn aud some in the spring for a succession of years, they have acquired different habits of noenwg, and will now only come to full perfection in the season to which they have been accustomed. So well were these characteristics understood 4U years ago certainly, that the writer, who "catchcropped" with vetches regularly, ordered from the seed merchant "winter" or "spring" tares as suitable for his requirements, and assuredly no intelligent farmers in the Home country, even in the early days, would fail to make the distinction in an order for seed. He knew the winter tare to be hardy, able to withstand the winter, but slow of growth, dwarf in habit, and less luxuriant than the summer or spring variety, which vegetate quickly, grow rapidly, and give by far a more abundant yield of forage. The experiences in | the growth of vetches are old enough in the United Kingdom to remove the questions regarding the cultivation and respective values of the usually cultivated varieties beyond cavil. In Rham's " Dictionary of the Farm," published in 1858, it is written of tares :— " When sown in autumn with a small sprinkling of wheat or rye, they cover the ground in spring, and supply

abundance of fodder in summer. A good crop of tares is fully equal in value, if not superior, to one of red clover; it comes off the ground in sufficient time to give the land a summer tillage, which is so useful in destroying weeds if the orop is plentiful, which should always be secured by a good manuring ; thus they are a good substitute for a summer fallow in heavy soils, and amply repay the labour and manure bestowed upon them .... Of the many species of tareß, that which is found the best adapted for agricultural purposes is the common tare (vicia sativa) of which there are two principal varities, very slightly differing in appearance, one of which is hardy and will stand the severest winters; the other is more tender, and is therefore only sown in spring, but it has the advantage of vegetating more rapidly, so that spring tares sown in March will be fit to out within a fortnight or three weeks after those sown in autumn. By sowing them at regular intervals from September till May. (English seasons implied) a succession of green tares in perfection, that is, in bloom or when the pods are formed, may be out for several months from May to October. A prudent farmer arranges his crops so that he shall have artificial food for his horses and cattle at least six months in the year, by having tares fit to out between the first and second cut of clover." In reference to the question of seed the author quoted recommends the growing of seed tares required on the farm. He writes : — " The difficulty in distinguishing the seed of the winter tare from the Bpring variety is so great that it should be either raised at home or procured from neighbours, or from the most respectable seedsmen. It is a common practice with dealers to mix the seeds of the winter tares after the time of sowing is past with spring tares that are in request at a later period. . . Foreign tares, which are imported (into England) in large quantities, are often the growth of southern climes, and will not stand the winter, or they have been raised from seed sown in spring so as to be really spring tares." When spring tares are sown in autumn, instead of winter tares, they may stand the frost if not very Bevere, but in general they rot on the ground and never recover, whereas the real hardy winter tares, whose vegetation is slower, seems insensible to the severest frosts.