Notes. 391 



Advantages of the Silage System. 



Under the above title, Mr. I'arisli, Yice-Principal of the Glen 

 School of Agriculture, coutrilmtes an article (published elsewhere in 

 this number of the Journal) the truth of which must be evident to 

 all. When one considers the possibilities of the country, and looks 

 ahead to the time when it will rank high in the world's production 

 of milk and meat, the increase in our herds (about 4^ per cent, 

 annually) appears unduly tardy. Yet there lies at our hands the 

 means of speeding our increase and improving the quality of our 

 meat, and a perusal of Mr. Parish's article must impress the un- 

 doubted advantages that will accrue from a wider use of the silage 

 system. Although the silo has been known in South Africa for the 

 past twenty years, its use has not spread as rapidly as its undoubted 

 advantages warrant ; census returns show that at the 30tli 

 April, 1921, there were 1329 pit silos and 549 erected silos in the 

 Union, the quantity of ensilage produced during the twelve months 

 ended on the above date being 89,147 tons. The development of our 

 cattle industry depends greatly on a sound system of feeding, and the 

 basis of this, Mr. Parish points out, will be silage. Where this very 

 important part of farm practice is neglected, the stock owner must 

 expect at his side the spectre of drought. With a full silo he can view 

 with eciuanimity the approach of the dry season, conscious that he 

 has the wherewithal to keep his stock alive. It is surely a matter 

 of first consideration. 



Tsetse Fly Investigation. 



During September the vStation on the White Umfolosi was 

 visited by Mr. Claude Fuller, Acting Chief, Division of Entomology, 

 in company with Professor J. C. Faure, of the Transvaal University 

 College. Some time was spent examining the progress of the work 

 made and the general environment of the station, which is located in 

 the heart of a g-reat bush savannah and the big game country. 

 Subsequently with Mr. Harris, officer in charge of the station, 

 JSTorthern Zululand was visited to see into the extent of the rest 

 of the fly country, and the repoi'ted presence thereabouts of Glossina 

 hrevipalpis, a species of Tsetse. At Ndunia the entomologists came 

 in brief contact with the Prime Minister's party and during a short 

 stay there the margins of the large pan or bayou, known as Lake 

 Inyameti, revealed several breeding grounds of the fly. The presence 

 of cattle feeding along the lakeside, coupled with a local consensus of 

 opinion that Nagana is absent, is recorded as a matter of interest. 

 To this it may be added that it is extremely probable that G. hrevi- 

 po.lpis is associated with most of the large bayous so characteristic of 

 the Pongola Piver in Tongaland. The previous records of this species 

 in the Union relate to specimens obtained by Mr. P. A. L. Brandon, 

 now magistrate at Ingwavuma, when stationed at Ubombo, and the 

 capture of one specimen by the Hon. Denys Reitz, Minister of Lands, 

 on Lake Inyameti in 1921. Mr. Brandon's specimens are in the 

 Durban Museum, bvit the exact locality from which they came is not 

 indicated. 



It is of interest to add that, up to the present, no further evidence 

 regarding the existence of Glossina austeni in Zululand is available 

 beyond the one insect captured by Mr. Brandon on the heights of the 

 Ubombo; this specimen is now preserved in the British Museum. 



