GORSE AS FOOD FOR CATTLE.

Colonist, Volume XII, Issue 1181, 19 January 1869, Page 4

GORSE AS FOOD FOR CATTLE.

"We have more than once mentioned <he great value of gorse as fodder, and have instanced numerous cases in England where it had been successfully employed. The following extract from the Melbourne Economist will show that the,, subject is being mooted there, and we should be glad to see some efforts made in this province both to utilise the abundant gorse and at the same time clear valuable land at present largely over-run with it: — " To produce abundance of food in drooping seasons is no difficulty, but management is required in raising sufficient fodder when assisted by the usual fall of rain. There are some plants which possess agricultural and feeding merits, and which when established require no after treatment, but will yield an astonishing weight of food during the hottest season. We refer more particularly to gorse or furze; however hot and dry the weather, this plant will continue to throw out tender shoots, and not only tender but nutritious shoots, palateable and relished by all stock. On land perfectly useless for any other purpose, whether rock or sand, this plant will flourish, and when once established does not require any after attention. It is really astonishing the quantity of nutritious food an acre or two of tae will yield, aod that

too in a season of drought, when every thing else is in a perishing state. In England it is mown, and the young shoots are passed; through a crusher, cut up, and then mixed with chaff. Many a horse has scarcely auy other food all winter but bruised furze and chaff; it has its disadvantages, and among the raost prominent is the difficulty of extinguishing should a bush fire catch hold of it, containing as it does so much essential oil; another drawback, perhaps, is the cover it affords to vermin in the shape of rabbits; however, if it be sown in strips, and away from the homestead, its establishment will prove more beneficial than otherwise."