344 Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. [May 3, 1920. 



that his birds come from a healthy establishment, and, in the case of young 

 chicks, that there has been no recent high mortality on the place from which 

 they came. Since the eggs may act as carriers they should be washed with 

 alcohol and dried in the air before placing in the incubator. No second- 

 hand baskets, crates, or incubators should be brought on to a farm without 

 careful disinfection. 



(To be continued.) 



Telephone Cables Damaged by Wood Borers. 



Temporary s^uspension of the telephone service in the Chatswood district 

 recently was traced by the Postmaster-General's Department to two small 

 holes bored in the lead cable, water being thereby admitted. On cutting the 

 lead away a small beetle — which had also bored through the lead bands 

 attaching the cable to the pole and I'iddled the wood — ^was discovered. In 

 the pole were also found four larvte. 



As the Department's cables had frequently been similarly attacked, the 

 .specimens found were forwarded to the Government Entomologist, who 

 reported that- the beetle [Bostrychus cylindriciis) was one of our common 

 native wood-boiing beetles ; it attacked all kinds of timbers, but the larvie 

 usually fed and pupated in the sapwood. I'his beetle was recorded some 

 years ago damaging empty wine casks at a place near Glenfield. The boring 

 through lead seemed to bn a casual habit, and no practical methud of dealing 

 with it presented itself except to destroy any poles, itc, in which the larvie 

 were found to be breeding in any number. 



Readers of the Gazette will remember that in November, 1917, the 

 Government Entomologist, Mi-. W. W. Froggatt, had a note on another 

 lieetle {Xylothrips gibbicoUis) which had similarly attacked and perforated 

 .sections of telephone cable in a number of cases in the metropolitan area. 



Silage from Beet-tops. 



The cultivation of beet sugar in the United States has lately been suggestive 

 there of a wider usefulness for the crop, namely, the utility of the tops for 

 the purpose of silage, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicates that 

 groweps in certain of the States who have a sufficient quantity of these tops 

 might reduce their hay requirements by half. 



The essentials involved in making good beet-top silage are said to be 

 substantially similar to those governing the making of good maize silage, 

 the same types of silo (structure or pit) being also applicable. Fermentation 

 in the silo (says the " Weekly News Letter," U.S. Department of Agriculture) 

 corrects the cathartic salts in the beet-tops and crowns, and the best feeding 

 practices show^ that the beet-top silage reduces hay requirements one-half 

 in feeding for beef or mutton or milk production. The silage should be fed 

 lightly to stock at first, and the stock-owner sliould be particularly wary 

 of mouldy portions. 



