460 Journal of Agriculture. [8 August, 1907. 



being available a pedigree boar will be purchased, and the raising of 

 pigs undertaken seriously. Poultry raising is also to be undertaken in 

 the forthcoming year, and yards and shelters are about to be erected. 

 A feature of the farm will be the planting of shade and ornamental 

 trees, and about 500 will be set out this season. 



A wire cut brickmaking plant driven by the traction engine and 

 capable of turning out 9,000 bricks per day has been installed. The 

 bricks will be largely used for building and paving and will also be 

 available to settlers at cost price. The first kiln will be ready for burning 

 shortly. The actual cost is so low, the clay being excavated by plough 

 and scoop and the fuel being obtained from clearing operations, that 

 they will be used for all building operations. The cost Avill he about 

 the same as weatherboard and considerablv less than timber and iron. 



A first-rate set of farming implements has been provided on the farm. 

 These have been made available to settlers at a low charge and made 

 much use of. Great satisfaction has been expressed with the tools used 

 for grading and ditching and also with the double disc harrows, spike 

 roller, and disc seed sower. The most important machine on the farm 

 has proved to be the traction engine. The greater part of the ploughing 

 and of the clearing, besides all cartage, has been done by it. It has 

 also run the brickmaking plant, saw bench, chaff and silage cutters, cen- 

 trifugal pump, and numerous smaller jobs. The fact that a team of 

 four horses has been sufficient to do the rest of the work speaks volumes 

 for the use made of the engine, which was bought wnth the principal 

 object of giving a thorough test to an efficient system of subsoiling. 

 Experiments in this direction will be made during the coming summer, 

 as it is not considered advisable to subsoil while much moisture is pre- 

 sent as there would be considerable risk of " puddling " and injury to 

 the land. 



Gradually the farm is being reticulated with a system of supply and 

 distributory channels fitted with drops, stops, and sluices to efi^ectively 

 regulate the flow of irrigation water. In other places drains are to be 

 cut to relieve swampv patches. A tank having a capacity of 7,000 cubic 

 yards has been constructed to act as a standby for irrigating adjacent 

 land should there be any failure in supply from the channels. 



The silo erected is of 60-tons capacity, and has proved the standby 

 of the farm. It was filled mostly with a crop of w-ild oats and finished 

 off with about 10 tons of wheat all cut in a green state. After it had 

 been used for a depth of 11 feet, 5 feet of maize, sorghum, amber 

 cane, Kaffir corn and millet were siloed and immediately used for feeding. 

 Upon first filling the silo, the contents were covered wath about a foot 

 of old straw and a cloth made from old bags. On that bags of earth 

 weighing about 4 tons were added and remained for five weeks. The 

 silo was then opened and feeding the cows began forthwith. The 

 sample was excellent and remained so from start to finish ; about 2 inches 

 around the edges were somewhat discoloured but there was absolutely 

 no waste. Very few of the cows wanted asking more than tw-ice before 

 becoming ravenous for silage, and the silo soon became their Mecca. A 

 Xo. 2 chaffcutter was used for chaffing the silage with a cut of half-an- 

 inch. An ordinarv chain elevator was run with a belt from the machine 

 and the whole driven bv the traction engine. Once in order the plant 

 ran very sweetly and it would have been quite possible to fill the silo in 

 3 days or perhaps less if strength had been available for carting the 

 crops from the field. However, longer time was made the rule in order 



