General Note^t. 1023 



paddock where horses and cattle depasture, it will be seen that they 

 will munch away at the cuttings for hours at a time until scarcely a 

 vestige of the cuttings is left. I have no idea of the amount* of 

 nutriment contained in vine cuttings, but the veiy fact of stock bein^' 

 fond of them proves that they are a valuable adjunct to otlier available 

 feed when it is not too plentiful. Sappy pithy vines such as the 

 Pineau Blanc, and Hermitage are devoured greedily whei'eas the 

 harder wooded vines, Carbinet and Reisling for instance, are left till 

 the last or scarcely touched, unless the stock are very hungry. The 

 prunings should be thrown out to the stock every evening immedi- 

 ately after being pruned, in arnifuls well apart, and if this is done 

 regularly throuj^h the pruning season the stock will be fonnd waiting 

 for their evening repast and they will be there first thing in the 

 morning if there are any cuttings left. I see by the May issue of 

 the Journal that Mr. Burney translated an article from the Rcrue de 

 ViticiiUvrt' recommending the crushing of vine-cuttings before feeding 

 them to stock, and I understand that in France they are cut up in 

 the same way as we cut chaff. Doubtless, these methods make a 

 more attractive feed, but 1 think the simpler method of tossing out 

 cuttings as they come from the pruner, without going to any trouble 

 or expense whatever, will commend itself to Australian vignerons. 



Vine leaves where they can be spared, and vines cut down to 

 within one or two leaves of the grapes, will keep stock alive and 

 strong during a bad summer. 1 saved the lives of 70 head of two 

 year olds during a severe drought by feeding them in this manner. 



The grape seed is good for fowls. For many years I have had 

 the pressings carted out from the cellar and spread out within i-each 

 of the poultry and they scarcely cease feeding on the gi-ape seeds all 

 the year round. The grape seed is all the more valuable, inasmuch 

 as it will remain perfectly sound for years exposed to the weathei-, 

 and will not germinate once in every ten years, even when ploughed 

 in. It is thus a contiiiuous food supply for poultry without giving 

 anv trouble whatever." 



A new volume commences in January and an Index to the 

 present volume will be supplied with that number. 



