45<5 



THE TROPICAL AGRIClJLTURlST. 



[Jan, I, 1887. 



thought my experience was of too short a duration 

 to admit of their rashly adopting the suggestion, 

 and I was desired to do my best to put it into 

 repair ; but my experience of the past three years 

 makes me doubt if it will ever be very profitable to 

 Government to retain it. The soil in many parts is 

 ])Oor and stony, other parts again are exposed to 

 devastating blasts, and it is in bad weather diflScult 

 of access. At the best it will cost a large sum of 

 money to repair the plantation, and it will be many 

 j'ears before it yields any reasonable returns to the 

 money invested. If the greater part of the Wood 

 plantation was abandoned and the few acres of land 

 round the head overseer's bungalow and the drying 

 sheds only were kept, the Pykara.head overseer would 

 be able to pay more attention to the Hooker plant- 

 ation, which is now becoming a very valuable pro- 

 perty. This would save nearly the whole of the ex- 

 pense of the upkeep of the Wood plantation or 

 about 118,000 per annum. 



IV. Upkeep. — The maintenance of the buildings, 

 roads, drains, bridges, &c., with one exception has 

 been well attended to on the Dodabetta, Naduvatam 

 and Hooker estates. The exception is the Mucroochy 

 bridge which spans the river crossing the road which 

 leads from Naduvatum to Hooker. 



V. Manure — («) Dodabetta. — I have been able 

 during the past year to obtain abundance of manure 

 for this estate from purchases made in the town 

 of Ootacamund, and on this account I have trans- 

 ferred the greater number of the Dodabetta cattle 

 to Naduvatam. 



Cuttle. —Many of the draught cattle belonging to 

 the Dodabetta estate are very old and several of 

 them died during the past year. These I propose 

 replenishing by young ones which may be obtained 

 at a resonable price during the fairs which are held 

 yearly at Murally at Mysore: The great want on 

 estates and indeed in all farms of this country is 

 the want of a sufficiency of manure. Almost every 

 estate has qattle upon it, which may be regarded 

 purely as manure-making machines, but these machines 

 are worked at very great waste, because owing to 

 the cost of storing up fodder they are obliged to 

 be sent out during the day on the hill sides to 

 graze where all the manure which they make during 

 the day is lost ; but if a sufficiency of fodder could 

 be stored in stacks or silos, these cattle might be 

 altogether stall fed, with the result that there would 

 be' an immense increase of manure coming into their 

 owner. At the same time, they would become much 

 fatter and therefore saleable for the purposes of the 

 butcher. During the past year very considerable 

 economy has been effected by using more largely 

 than had hitherto been done the Government carts 

 ami bullocks for the transportation of bark to 

 Mettup;ilayam and for the carriage of supplies to 

 the estates. 



(li) Naduvatam. — Owing to the transfer of the Doda- 

 betta cattle and the purchase of the few additional 

 animals, this estate has been much better off for 

 manure during the past year than it had ever been 

 before. 



(c) Pj/kara. — Both the plantations of Hooker and 

 Wood continue to be well supplied. 



YI. Havstack. — During last autumn, I made a large 

 haystack of grass obtained from the hills on the 

 Government estate at Naduvatam at a cost of R109 ; 

 the grass was cut by sickles and was well dried 

 before being stacked. The hay turned out very 

 fair and sufficed to keep in good condition all the 

 cattle on the estate during the five dry months of 

 January, February, March, April and May. I made 

 another smaller stock on the Dodabetta estate consisting 

 entirely of lirizu maxima commonly known as Jacobs' 

 tearg. This grass completely covered may of the plots 

 and often grew to the height of nearly two feet. 

 The hay was not very well got ou account of the weather 

 being wet at the time it was harvested. Never- 

 theless it proved very nutritious and horses and 

 cattle took to it readily. Dr. Shaw, Inspecting 

 Veterinary 8urg(on, Madras Army, to whom I sent 

 fjome of these haj-s for cxperimeutf tion, has been 



good enough to send me the following very interes- 

 ting report on their quality, and the suggestions 

 which he makes with regard to the other kinds of 

 grasses, which may be used as hay, will be attended 

 to during the present year: — 



A(lvcrtin? to my letter, No. 4.5-8(5, Ootacamimd, 10th April 

 188t>, I have the honor to report on tlie two samples of liuy 

 forwarded with your letter, No. 38, of lOth April. 



2. The Naduvatam samp'e (namp iiuknown) did not prove 

 a success. It wa-s in the tirst place coarse and wiry in its 

 nature, and I should .say o\ er-dried, being ii-isp and "crumbly 

 when rubbed, and fracturing into small particles. It liad 

 little or no aroma and was lure and there mouldy as if it 

 had been exposed to dry on damp ground. The horses I 

 tried this sample with, did not evince any keenness to eat it, 

 and two out of five absolutely refused it for some days, after 

 which it was only sparingly partaken of. 



3. No. 2 sample (Briza maxima) or Jacob's tears was better 

 saved, had an aroma of hay and, I think, if it had been 

 cut a little earlier, or when more succulent, it would have 

 afforded a better sample. Four horses partook of this sample, 

 and kept in fine working condition on it. The fifth (a horse 

 I had in training) being at the time on an allowance of oat 

 hay, occasionally nibbled at it only. 



4. As regards the feeding properties of the two samples, 

 I do not think sample No. 1 is good enough to persevere 

 with as a horse fodder ; at the same time, I think it far 

 preferable to the bad grass which is brought in during the 

 dry months and which forms the bulk of ste,ble supplies up 

 here from November to May. 



5. The question of stable fodder as an industry on these 

 hills is one, I think, capable of great extension and would 

 prove a remunerative investment to the agricultural classes 

 if they could be encourage I to grow them. The cultivation 

 of o:tts by General Morgan and Mr. J. Sullivan has proved 

 that three crops can be produced from one tillage. The 

 first and second crops can be cut as green fodder and the 

 third allowed to go to ear and made into hay. I am using 

 such now with the greatest succes.s, The so'l and climate 

 of Ootacamund are particularly favorable for the cultivation 

 of oats-, the stalks of which attain a great size ; and I have 

 seen it growing with the ear just buddinjr though seven feet 

 high. I have no experience with the "Bromus"' or South 

 American oat grass but General Morgan tells me it has 

 taken favorably to the soil und has proved a valuable fodder. 



VII. Silos. — In my last year's report I stated 

 that I had made silos on the Dodabetta and Wood 

 estates for the preservation of fodder during the 

 wet weather. The silo on the Wood estate wag 

 never utilized, as a heavy storm flooded it before it 

 could be properly roofed ; but on the Dodabetta 

 estate I made six silos, all of which have been 

 successful, and I will describe their structure and 

 the mode of filling them. 



No. I was a brick-built pit lined with cement the 

 internal measurement of which was as follows ; — Fifteen 

 feet long by ten feet broad by twelve feet deep ; 

 the walls from top to bottom had a slope given to 

 them inwards of six inches. This pit was roofed 

 with zinc so that no rain could by any possibility get 

 into it. The cost of building the pit was 1120(5. I 

 began filling this pit on the 14th of October and finished 

 on the 19th idem. The plants used for filling the 

 silo were very numerous ; indeed, almost everything 

 was put in which it was known the cattle would eat 

 in a green state such as maize, cholum, rayi, lucerne, 

 Spanish needle, Polijgonvm nepolense, Jacobs' tears, grass 

 from the lawns of Government gardens, hill grass, 

 swamp grass, &c., &c. All these with the exception 

 of lawn grass, which had been cut by mowing ma- 

 chines, were passed through chaff-cutters and cut into 

 pieces not bigger than an inch in length. As this 

 was cut, the mixture was thrown into the silo and 

 when a stratum of about two feet in thickness had 

 been put in, it was trodden well down. This was 

 repeated until the silo was completely filled when 

 mats were placed on the top, then planks of blue 

 gum and then two feet and-a-half of moderately dry 

 earth. In the course of a week the earth sank exactly 

 one foot, after which there was no further subsi- 

 dence. During the subsidence the earth cracked 

 around the edges of the pit and it was necessary to 

 dig up the earth about these cracks with a fork and 

 then tread it down again, to prevent the access of 

 air to the fodder below. It was opened on the of 



April in the presence of His Excellency the Oom- 

 mander-in-Ohief, Brigadier-General EUes, c.n., Adju- 

 tant-General, Dr. Sbaw and others who had ex- 

 perience in the making of silos. The fodder on 



