FORAGE CROPS-RYE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2303, 21 April 1898, Page 4

FORAGE CROPS-RYE.

I Inhis " Annals of Agriculture," ArLhur Young, ' speaking of the South Dawns in 1788, says-: " I know oi no lands in the kingdom, rich marshes exeapted, which are stocked in sach a proportion. Mr Ellm&n (famed for his improvement of the Southdown breed of feheep) on 500 ! acres has 700 ewe-, lamb?, and wethers in | winter, and 1450 of all ssrts in summer, besides | I*o head of cattle." The rate of stocking of 1 tfee poor pastures of the Downs was only to be i accounted for by reason of the great quantity ! o£ artificial food that was raised on the arable I part of every farm. At that early date oil- ] cakes and other cheap artificial foods for slock I were unknown, and so the arable part of the farm had to supply the principal part of the winter and spring food as well as a portion for summer needs. » The system of management pursued is thus described by Youatfc ia his work "On Sheep" :—" The arbifici&l food most in use in the begimrtsg of spring and soon after lambing is green rye ; but it must be cautiously given or it will occasion- ' ally scour the sheep and" produce fatal inflammation of the bowels. This, however, is prevented by removing fehe sheep for a few- hoars once in the day to old pasture ground and never folding them on the rye during the night;. The rye being fed off or running to seed by the end of May |is ploughed for turnips oi- for rape. Kyegrass succeeds to the rye, and afroeds excellent food until the latter end of June, when the winter tares will follow. These, according to Mr £11 man, may be sown from, fcha beginning of October to the beginning of May following, so that one crop may follow the other aß' is may be wanted. Tares, clover, oi: rape come next in order. The tares are probably not co good as the clover or raps ; but this depends much on the situation and soil of the farm. Lastly, for winter food, come the turnips, of which the sheepowner should be careful always to have a snf&cienf/ quantity. The swedes are preferable, if they can'be sown sufficiently early, and will last until the lambing time-; but. they should not be given afterwards, for the lambs do not always thrive upon tbeoj. . . , There are no sheep more ' healthy than the Southdowna. They seldom suffer from hydatid on the brain,, and their 1 general health may be much connected with this frequent change of food." The edition of Youatt's work quoted' from was published in 1837', and so it will be perceived' that according- to Arthur Young and Youatt, the best farming in the end of the last and in the early part of the present century was associated ■ with systematic forage cropping aa the only available means for the ©rofltible maintenance of a considerable head of live stock en mixed arable and pasture farms. It will be observed that rye had a prominent place ao an intermediate crop, and as this cereal is the almost exclusively-grown forage crop by our farmers, and almost entirely by dairy-farmers, only a few of whom know of all its merits for the purposes of stock-feeding, it is needful that the long and well known characteristics and capabilities s£ eye aa aa> ordinary ctou ias the seed, and-as %

forage crop, should be plainly represented, for as in the columns of newspapers t&cso are rapeatediy much misrepresented; by ill'-iuformed' writers, it is necessary to controvert their pretensious dictations, as they characteristically back them up by bogus personal txperioLces.

16 has been shown thab for much exceeding a century rye has been sown iv Eugland as a, green forage. Sown in auturna and fed off early in the spring, the land; was invigorated and produced escellenb crops of potatoes and turnips the samejear. Wtiting of the cultivation of rye as an intermediata crop, Rham in hia "Dictionary of thc-i Farm," published iv 1853, and still a recognised etandacd work on agriculture, says: — " 'Slxis p/actico canaofc bo safficienfcly recoir.ajendsd ; aud if the rye is sown very early in autumn it may be fed off in October and November, wheu &heep feed is beginning to fail and the iurnips have not yet attained their full s'ze, without any det.riment to the succeeding spring produce: Winter barley and winter oats have been substituted for. rye rs spring fodder by some farmers, bub on land of moderate quality rye i'- gsaor-illy preferred. It bears ihe severest winters, which is not the case with barley or cats. The rye which has been fed off vary early may bo allowed to remain for seed, which ife will produce more or less abundantly, according as it has been fed off ! earlier or later." The universal evidencs of ex' ' perienced growers has been italicised, because superficial and irresponsible writerß have advised' against sowings later than April 1. Afc the time of writing dairyfarmers are anxiously ssarcbiDg for seed, but, unluckily, aeed and produce merchants have been sold out oE stocks for some tima. This proves a great disappointment, and especially to occupisra of dairy farms on elevated and exposed situations, among whom it is a common practice to seed in April, adding a little artificial or eutnmer-saved manure. A heavy cutting is> ob'ained in October and November, leaving the land reac'y for turnip cultivation, but very frequently a portion of the freshly-cut rye is Sop-drassed with wintercaved furmy-ard manure, aadi in this way a second Rud * third, cutting are obtained for .cow food iv the summer. Siauy years ago' • there was a v-«rie!y of ry,t>. cultivated in the ' Home country, known as SI John's Diy rye, because it g'evrso rapidly fchab if sown about St. John's Day (June 24) it was fit to mow : green by the middle oE September, and in favourable seasons could be fed iff again iv November, without preventing its giving ample feed in spring and a good crop of grain at the ' next harvest. There is- so doubt that there are j varieties of the same kind, of pl&ols which have ■ a much more vigorous- habit than those generI ally cuitivated/and the introduction of them vsiiere they are not known would ba an itnpori faat benefit ta agriculture. Is miy be Well, however, for growers of rye to bear in mind that if any green plant is cut down before the fructification is completed it will in general throw out fresh s'ems, acd in very rich soils or with liberal mariKTiugifea blos«omtng may thuss be continuously retarded until the roots become too weak to force successive stems. The celebrated continental ■ agriculturist Dv Hamel records cises where from one sowiug five abundant, cuts of grreu rje foe cattle had been obtained in two years. When tha land is in good heart and clean after a grain harvest, rye may be fcxpeditiously prepared for by means of a strong scarifier or grublSev whwh. t'P'ns the soil F.everal inches deep, or the doubie or treble furrow plough may bft employed. It must be understood that a week gained &t t'ma of sowing may niiko all the difference between a crop which can be eaten off before winter and m» which will bs ! only fit for sheep ia the succeeding spring. A sufficient portion seeded c-srly, successive sowings may be made at iutecvala until well aftec the season for winter wheat sowing it necessary, but the rye seed uaed foe iste sowing should be the product cf a wintec-growa crop. The 1 weeds which, may spring up with the rye will either be choked bj its luxuriance,, 'or at all events will never shed tbeir seeds ; all the annual weeds 7?ill be destroyed, being mown or fed off with the rye, and the" roofo subsequently ploughed in. Kye is subject to most of thf. diseases which afftct other grain, but there is one remarkable'disease to which it is not gubjict— viz, ergot, the French name for a cock's spur, which tha diseased grain resembles in shape. Except at the times it is required for the purpose of sowing for green food for stock, there' is little or no demand for rye in the markets, but it may not be amiss to remind farmers thai its cultivation as a forage crop is extending rapidly, and for the past two or three months the inadequate eupplies procurable seld at very high prices.