648 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[March i, i88^. 



America. It is the safest, and the only cotton cake that 

 can be employed without danger for young animals. Vn- 

 barkcd cotton cake or its flour is offered at a very low 

 price ; it should be avoided as it contains tilameuts of cot- 

 ton or cellulose, which from their indigestibihty are in- 

 imical to the production of either milk or meat. Thus 

 decorticated c.ake contains 15 per cent of fatty matters, 

 and 43 of albuminoids; in the undecorticated state not 

 more than one-half of these percentages. A mixture much 

 in favour for milch-cows consists of | lb. each of pea and 

 vetches flour ; half-a-pound of barley meal and one pound 

 of cake. This feed of 3 lb. is given in moieties, morning 

 and evening, on the cattle leading and returning to graze. 



M. Quatremarin has adopted the Neilson system for the 

 desiccation of forage on his farm in Normandy ; he dis- 

 penses with steam-worked machinery for the production of 

 ventilating currents; he has invented a machine, worked 

 by an ordinary labourer, which makes 1,800 to 2,000 re- 

 volutions per minute, can be trundled on a wheelbarrow, 

 and set to work anywhere. The price of the machine is 

 about fr. 108. . 



The ensilage of green fodder in silos or trenches con- 

 tinues to be one of the foremost questions in the agri- 

 cultural world. It has now passed out of the domain of 

 experiment and ridicule, and become a concrete fact. Yet 

 it was only in 1S52 that the discoverer of the plan, M. '. 

 Goffart, of Burtin, in Sologne, fii-st commenced liis trials 

 of the preservation of the green stems of maize in tii'enches 

 made in ordinary soil. Agiicnltural commissions and in- 

 spections by unbelievers have since borne unanimous testi- 

 mony to the success of JI. Gotfarfs discovery. In order 

 to encourage a system so fraught with practical advant- ^ 

 ages, several of the local agricultiu-al socieiies of France | 

 have offered prizes for the trench-preservation or ensilage 

 of fodders. Among other reports, that by the Meaux | 

 Society deserves special notice ; the tests were chiefly applied 

 to clover, and many of the competitors commenced as 

 disciples of St. Thomas, but ended as is usual in pre,";eiii;e 

 of palpable conviction as zealots. 



One farmer, Benard, trenched the yield of TJ acres of 

 red clover, in an ordinary silo 40 inches deep, 80 wide at , 

 bottom, and 120 at top and 55 yaids long. The mass was 

 reduced two-fifths by shrinking. A second trench 33 yards | 

 Ion" contained the yield of 6 acres of red clover. The [ 

 Oommissioners found all the clover to be well conserved, i 

 of a clear brown colour, giving off the alcohohc odour ; 1 

 the animals eat it with avitUty. M. Benard recommends I 

 that the clover be cut when in full flower, and to select 

 a time rather hnmid than dry for cutting and pitting the 

 clover, the better to exclude the air and water. 



A M. Gilles employed his pits, 22 >: 10 x 7 feet, destined ' 

 for distillery pulp, to the preservation of clover, cut be- 

 tween the 5th and 10th .June, and when commencing to 

 form seed; 56 tons of stuff were pitted. It turned out 

 well. M. Guibert trenched four acres of white clover, and i 

 obtauied a medal for his results, though he expected to | 

 find his clover '* only a heap of manure ; " he had the [ 

 clover trodden down in the silo by bullock.s. i 



A. M. Martin pitted the yield of five acres of late red 

 clover, in a trench S3 yards long : the men shook the clover, i 

 winnowed it as it were, as they spread it in the silo; | 

 the next day they renewed work lat€, and then covered | 

 in. The volume of the presene lost 75 per cent, but was | 

 in an eatable condition, because the ensilage was not i 

 finished within the day commenced, and the forage was 

 aireil too much. ! 



The Commission concludes that all clovers and after- ' 

 maths can be perfectly trenched, as well as other green 

 forage; that the trenches exact no outlay of capital ; that | 

 it is at the moment of flowering such forage ought to I 

 be mown as it then contains its maximum of vegetable I 

 humidity ; that neither rain nor dew affects the pitting, 

 but on the contrary, if too dry it does not keep so well. . 

 The employment of salt is not necessary, nor is a mixture | 

 with dry matters, cut straw, chaff, &c., required. SUos ; 

 constructed in masonry and cement give good resuH«, but I 

 no special system of trench can be recommended ; that ' 

 ou^ht to depend on the region, the surface and subsoils, 

 and the climate. The chief ends to secure consist in the 

 exclusion of air and water, the pressing of the matter in 

 the trench with regularity, and covering it with a pres-sure 

 of 8 to 10 cwt. per square . yard. Outting, before trench- 



ing, is not indispensable, save in the case of forage with 

 thick stems. In nutritive value, silo-food approaches most 

 to winnowed fodder, but is more assimilative. In the case 

 of milch-cows it is a beneficial ration. 



It is the usual practice with housed stock to comnieuci 

 the rations with hay, and then, having cleaned the troughs, 

 supply the water, to be followed next by roots, &c. This 

 plan or order of giving food-suppUes has been called in 

 question. At the agronomical station of Kiel, where the 

 cattle can drink when they please, the rations were dis- 

 tributed thus twice a day : hay ; cake, roots and straw. 

 It was observed that the cows only djank after having 

 eaten the roots (mangolds), and that as soon as the special 

 drinking trough was refilled, they commenced again Ut 

 drink with avidity. Only occasionally an animal drank a 

 little water after consuming straw. 



The agriculturists of the department of Loiret have pre- 

 sented M. Pasteur with a splencUd objet d'Art — subject 

 " Youth" — in honor of the benefits his discovery of vac- 

 cinating cattle against the chat-hon malady have conferred 

 upon them. Since they have practised his discovery, they 

 fear no longer the disease. Impossible to have more strik- 

 ing testimony. 



The herring boats on returning to France after the season's 

 fishing, proceed to secure the fish ; the refuse is available 

 for manure. This is not in high request from the quantity 

 of salt it contains, 50 per cent. It is suggested to wash 

 the refuse two or three times in water, to carry off the 

 excess of salt, and then dry the debris, which contains 4^ 

 per cent of nitrogen and S of phosphoric acid. The fatty 

 matter, 38 per cent, and which is of no use to the plant, 

 could be separated by treatment with sulphuret of carbon, 

 that which would enhance the nitrogenous value of the 

 manure. 



Messrs. Lavallard of the General Omnibus Company, as- 

 sisted by Professor de Muntz, have been occupied since 

 two years experimenting on the relative value of saw-dust , 

 peat, and straw, as littering for horses, and their import- 

 ance as manures. The conclusion is, that saw-dust (from 

 white deal) ;-anks iiist. then peat mould, and lastly, straw. 



A roller-cart, though not exactly new in idea, is becoming 

 a favourite in the case where the cuttiug-up of meadow laud 

 by ordinary wheels, dm-ing the transport of top-diessings, 

 is undesirable, especially when mowing machines ai-e in- 

 tended to be used. It is an ordinary cart, arranged to be 

 fixed on a roller of two or three joints. 



The Society for the Encouragement of Xational Industiy 

 has awarded its first prize of fr. 12,000 to M. Faucon, for 

 his plan of resisting the ravages of the phylloxera by 

 autumnal submersion of the vines and good spring manui - 

 ings. The plan is now applied to 50,000 acres of vine- 

 yards, that which signifies an assured production of more 

 than half-a-miUion gallons of wine yearly. It is regret- 

 table to learn that there are 200,000 acres of vineyards 

 capable of being flooded, but that the proprietors dechne 

 to so treat. 



M. Gaillat of Beaune (Cote d'Or) has proilueed the 

 latest remedy against the vine bug. Accepting as true 

 that fire pmifieth all things, he has invented a small hand 

 machine weighing thi'ee pounds, called a ila,nhcnt\ which 

 injects a flame of petroleum a distance of ten inches. By 

 a system of cocks, this flame can be directed in any direc- 

 tion, and a hood protects it from being deriated by the 

 wind. It is thus between Novemljer and February, and 

 dm-ing a dry period, that he singes Wnes attacked with 

 the phylloxera, destroying their eggs, &c.; the same cure 

 can be applied to anv' trees affected with insects, regul- 

 ating the action of the flame to the delicacy of the stems. 

 It is capital for bUstering off old coats of paint and scorch- 

 ing the walls of stables or apartments where an infectious 

 malady has taken up it.s abode. 



A proprietor of several farms asserts that since ten years 

 he has prevented wild mustard and similar weeds springing 

 up with his sowings. In March, he employs a peculiar 

 harrow of finelj-set steel teeth, combining the advantages 

 of a scurifier : the soil, well-stirred, is carefully rolled. 

 All the seeils of we«ls that can grow will now shoot ; 

 when the latter have sprouted, he gives a few strokes of 

 his harrow, which never allows the weeds to retm-n to 

 the soil, while '• stirring '' the soil, and the enemy lies 

 everywhere dead. It is thus his flax is ever clean, while 

 his neighbour's is filthy. 



