562 Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. [Aug. 2, IQ20. 



prickly pears in the Botanic Gardens together. He informed me that 

 Opuntias are especially common in Sicily, Sardinia, the Island of Capri, 

 Naples, and the Gulf of Salerno. They form an important item in the 

 husbandry of South Italy, cows being regularly fed upon them and stony 

 or bad land utilised for their culture. The spinescent forms are grown for 

 ornament, but the great majority are the so-called Indian Fig or Opuntia 

 ficus-indica, which, produces a fruit used by man, while the spines and 

 spinules are fewer than in most species. He made the observation that 

 they have evolved a very good pear-eating cow, which, he stated, was a 

 cross between the Holstein and Jersey; it was suri^rising to see to what 

 extent these animals could eat prickly pear without their mouths becoming 

 inflamed as would have become those of ordinary cattle. The statement 

 appears to be of sufficient interest for further inquiry. 



Pop Corn Variety Trial, 1919-20. 



A TRIAL of different varieties of pop corn was made last .season on the farm 

 of Mr. T. Smith, Tuggerah. The season was- extremely good, and scarcely 

 at any time during the growth was there a deficiency of moisture in the 

 soil. The soil on which the experiment was conducted is not a rich one, 

 being typical of much of the somewhat flat land in the district, which is 

 mainly usetl for dairving and the growth of attendant sumnier and winter 

 fodder crops — maize, sorghum, oats, wheat, &c. A fertiliser mixture con- 

 sisting of equal parts of supfrphosphate and blood and bone was applied at 

 the rate of 2 cwt. per acre, though Mr. Smith has demonstrated since to his 

 ow^n satisfaction that the departmental recommendation of a fertiliser 

 mixture consisting of equal parts of superphosphate and bonedust without 

 any blood will give better results. 



Sowing was made on 8th October, 1919, and the earliest variety. Black 

 Beauty, was fit to pull in less than four months, the latest of the other 

 varieties being ready nearly a month afterwards. The average height of 

 growth ranged from 5 feet in Black Beauty to 8 feet in Mapledale Piolific, 

 the growth of the latter variety being the best the writer has yet seen in 

 this State. 



The following are the results : — 



An average yield of 40 bushels per acre may be regarded as highly satis- 

 factory. These are the best yields yet produced in the State with pop corn, 

 and they show that this crop promises to be highly profitable for a few 

 growers who will seize the op|if)i tunity that is ofre?ed. The pop corn manu- 

 facturers ill Sy<lney were offering £1 per bushel for pop corn at tfie time of 

 the latest inquiry, and one firm stated their willingness to give 22s. 6d. per 

 bushel for Black IBeauty variety. — IT. Wenholz, Inspector of Agriculture. 



