676 Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. [Sept. 2, 1920. 



issued by the Department, about 5 per cent, to 6 per cent, of M.I.B. meal 

 or Compo-meal added to the morning mash only, is required to balance 

 the ration to the desired standard for laying hens. This is, of course, on a 

 standard of ^0 per cent., as the protein content of the meal. Excessive 

 amounts are liable to cause more or less looseness of the intestines, and 

 sometimes enteritis. It is therefore advisable that the amuunt used should 

 be restricted to the quantity mentioned, or at any rate should not be much 

 in excess. 



In regard to bone meal, the use of this should be almost confined to 

 chickens, and 3 per cent, to 5 per cent, might be used in one feed per day for 

 chickens between 2 and 6 weeks old. After that about 5 per cent, of Compo, 

 which is a mixture of meat and bone meal, might be used in one mash feed per 

 day. It miglit be well to point out too that the idea of feeding chickens on 

 a highly concentrated or narrow ration is not the way to rear strong profit- 

 able stock. The objective in feeding the young should be to develop to the 

 fullest extent the capacity of the bird to consume food. The development 

 of such capacity is of utmost importance, and is a prime factor in building 

 up a constitution that will be able to convert the largest amount of food into 

 eggs during the laying period. Tlie small eater is not the bird to stand the 

 strain of high egg-production and of laying good-sized eggs, and at the same 

 time be capable of transmitting a good constitution to its offspring. Not 

 only so, but feeding on a too-concentrated food generally brings on too early 

 maturity with all its train of evils. 



Community Action and Grasshopper Control. 



Conservation (the monthly journal of the Commission of Conservation, 

 Ottawa, Canada,) in its issue for May cites as an instance of the value of 

 community action in dealing with an insect pest like locusts, an experience 

 of certain Quebec farmers in 1915. About 30,000 acres of growing crop 

 in St. Etienne-de-Gras and adjoining parishes were treated with poisoned 

 bait within a period of two or three days, and, as a result, 95 per cent, of 

 the locusts were killed, and crops were saved in some fields where, owing to 

 continued outbreaks of these insects, nothing of value had been harvested for 

 several years. 



Size of Core and its Significance to Maize Growers. 



The growing of a certain variety of maize because it has a small core — simply 

 because such cobs usually thresh out well — has been overdone by many 

 farmers. Some cores are certaitdy of excessive size, but it is difficult to 

 understand how a core of moderate size can be regarded as an objection, in 

 view of the fact that the core itself is largely waste, and that such a core 

 usually carries more grain than a small core. 



Yield per acre, not percentage of grain per tob, is the most important 

 consideration, and it is the one farmers should keep before them. — 

 H. Wenholz, Inspector of Agriculture. 



