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1898.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 37 



Another new fodder crop for this year was the Brazilian 

 stooling flour' corn. The plants made a vigorous growth, 

 but are judged to be too coarse and woody to prove of 

 much value for fodder. 



Black chaff or African millet is another crop under trial 

 this year for the first time. It appears to be the same as 

 Kaffir corn, and, as reported last year, our experience leads us 

 to regard this fodder crop as inferior to maize for our climate. 



A Reputed Method for Destroying Stumps. 



A correspondent in one of our agricultural papers during 

 the summer of 1895 reported that he had found it possible 

 to destroy stumps in the following manner : — 



A hole one or two inches in diameter according to the 

 size of the tree, and eighteen inches deep, is to be bored in 

 the stump. Into this put from one and one-half to two 

 ounces of saltpetre, fill with water and plug tightly. Six 

 months later, put into the same hole about one gill of kero- 

 sene oil, and set fire to it. The correspondent stated : 

 " The stump will smoulder away without blazing, even down 

 to every part of the roots, leaving nothing but ashes." 



On Nov. 4, 1895, fifty stumps of trees cut in 1894, in- 

 cluding the following varieties, maple, hickory, hemlock, 

 white pine, yellow birch and elm, were bored according 

 to directions. On Deceml)er 11 saltpetre and water were 

 put into the holes, according to directions, and the holes 

 plugged. During July, 1896, the plugs were removed, the 

 holes were filled with kerosene, and an attempt made to 

 burn the stumps. It was found that not even the oil would 

 burn. A portion of the stumps were left until June, 1897, 

 when another attempt was made to ])urn them, using a low- 

 test oil, called paraffine gas oil. The stumps are still in 

 the field. The method has been given a thorough trial, Imt 

 must be regarded as a complete failure. 



Poultry Experiments. 

 Experiments with poultry were carried out during the 

 winter of 1890 and 1897. Our attention was confined to 

 three points : — 



