412 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [10 July, 1916. 



Digestible Nutrients. 



For the purpose of determining the relative food values of foodstuffs, 

 each is analyzed to determine the percentages of protein, carbohydrate, 

 and crude fat or ether extract. This process gives the total amounts 

 present, but does not indicate the food value of the substance. 



To ascertain its nutritive properties, the palatability and digestibility 

 are determined by feeding it either alone or in combination with other 

 foods of known value and digestibility, for a period of several days, to 

 animals — in this case, to cows. The manure is carefully collected, 

 weighed, and analyzed, and the difference between that contained in the 

 original food and manure represents what has been digested and is 

 available for the animal's use. 



DIGESTIBILITY OF SILAGE. 



With regard to the question of the digestibility of silage against that 

 of the original crop from which it is produced, it is generally recognised, 

 according to a note by Messrs. Guthrie and Ramsay in the Government 

 agricultural publication of New South Wales, that it is about the same 

 as that of dried fodder (hay), both silage and hay being slightly less 

 digestible than the original green fodder. This low digestibility is not 

 due to any actual decrease of indigestible material, but to the fact that 

 there is always a considerable loss in the conversion of the green ci'op 

 into hay or silage (apart from the loss of water), and that this loss 

 chiefly consists of sugar and similar soluble substances which are wholly 

 digestible. A loss of as high as 20 per cent, of material is possible 

 in the conversion of green crop into silage, and the material so lost 

 is for the most part the digestible portion of the fodder. On the whole, 

 there is less loss of material when the crop is converted into silage than 

 in the case of field-cured crops, and the silage, if properly prepared, 

 is much more succulent and palatable to stock. If the fodder in drying 

 is exposed to rain, a very considerable loss of material results; whereas 

 in the conversion into silage, such conditions can be avoided. — Auckland 

 Weekh/ News, 24th February, 1916. 



RADIUM AS A FERTILIZER. 



For the past two years experiments have been instituted at Reading, 

 England, to investigate the power of radium as a fertilizer. As a 

 result of the above experiments it is made clear that while in some 

 cases plants dressed with radio-active ore have given better results than 

 the control plants, the improvement has not been of such a nature as 

 to warrant the assumption that so expensive a commodity as radium 

 could be profitably applied to crops. Accepting these investigations 

 as conclusive, the farmer and gardener, says the Times, need look for 

 no material benefit from radium. 



The chief result has been to emphasize the value of farmyard 

 manures and artificial fertilizers. — Extract from current Industrial 

 News, Journal of Ind. and Eng. Chem., December, 1915. 



