GRASS ENTHUSIASTS.
One of the most intensive campaigns in farming education ever undertaken is in full swing. It is commercial in origin, but should be altruistic in effect. Lecturers and so-called " literature " have been sent out into every county and district of Britain and Ireland to preach the value of the new system of grass-farming, first perfected and popularized in Germany. The theory is that, if grass be properly fed and treated with nitrogenous fertilisers, it may treble and more than treble its value. These lecturers maintain that three beasts may be fed and indeed fattened on an acre. Mr. Christopher Tumor says : " Under this system, half an acre of grass can keep a 1,000-gallon cow for six months." More than this, the autumnal grasses may prove nearly as rich in food and as palatable as the spring grasses, and therefore the farmer may spend less by a half or more on imported " cake." The discovery is of crucial importance here, because no islands or continents in the world boast a soil and climate so congenial to grass as Ireland, Wales, and England—in that order. There are those who maintain that this new science plus sugar-beet may entirely revive the farming industry in Britain. Whatever happens, a case has been made out for the most thorough experiment. On the subject of sugar-beet, it is calculated that last year a subsidy of £3,000,000 to the home-grown crop has saved the expenditure of £8,000,000 on an imported product.* * * • •
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