198 



THE AORICULTUBAL JOURNAL. 



Pou/try Bugs, 



WHILE at Greytown Mr. Cook, the 

 poultry expert, discovered a fowl 

 hug, with a brownish tint. Fowl btigs 

 of a bluish tint he had found in the Cape, 

 but Mr. Cook was told there _ was no 

 such thing as a large bug in this Colony. 

 He then expressed his conviction that 

 there was, as he found so many birds 

 drooping and dying — generally put 



down to fowl-sickness. In his researches 

 at Greytown Mr. Cook came across a large 

 number of birds looking very bad, and he 

 discovered that they swarmed with bugs. 

 The fowls were wasting away. The 

 nature of the bug is not to stay on the 

 bird, but to come out at night, suck the 

 blood, and retire in the daytim.e to the 

 cracks and crevices in the perch. 



CorresponttenceM 



NATAL GRASSES. 



DEAE SIE,— Will you kindly have the 

 two specimens of grass (I fear, 

 though, they are rather old), named for 

 me, and say if they are perennial. 



They come up every time land is 

 ploughed. Stock of all kinds eat them 

 readily ; fowls like the seeds which fall 

 from A. 



Both grasses grow luxuriantly, and one 

 could get good crops of hay from either 

 or both. 



Thanking you in anticipation of your 

 reply. Yours truly, — 



James Thorrold. 



Sunday's River. 



To the Editor Agricultural Journal 



Mr. J. Medley- Wood, A.L.S., of the 



Botanic Gardens, Durban, kindly replies 

 as follows to the foregoing questions : — 



GRASSES SENT FOR IDENTIFICA- 

 TION BY MR. JAS. THORROLD. 



A. Panicum Isachne (Roth). — Of this 

 grass I have no information, but most 

 of the genus Panicum are good fodder 

 grasses. The value of this particular 

 species would be best ascertained by 

 farmers in wliose vicinity it is found. It 

 is annual. (Natal Plants, Plate 149.) 



B. Eleusine indica (Gaerten). ■ — A 

 grass which is cosmopolitan in the 

 tropics. It is said to be' a , good fodder 

 grass, and cattle are, I believe, fond of 

 it^ but it is annual, not perennial. 



S 



MANNA HAY. 

 IR, — Very few farmers seem to realise 

 what a valuable fodder we have in 

 the variety of "manna" or millet which 

 is grown in the Transvaal. There are, of 

 course, many different kinds of millet, 

 but I think the sort which sells so 

 readily on the Johannesburg market is 

 infinitely the best. I have grown it for 

 two years, and am very pleased with it, 

 as it seems to be able to stand great 

 hardship in the way of drought and rough 

 weather. 



My crop this year will run out three 

 tons to the acre, which I consider a good 

 yield, seeing that it only requires 10 lbs. 

 of seed to sow an acre. I have never 

 seen a sign of rust in it. My neighbour 

 last year planted some in the early spring. 

 The seed lay in the ground for three 

 weeks or so until the rains came. It 

 started away at once, and he reaped it in 

 the summer, a good crop without a speck 

 of rust. There will be a large demand 

 for manna when communication with 

 Johannesburg is again open.— Yours, &c. 



Arthur B. Koe, 

 Estcourt, 24th May, 1901. 



" How do you buy your apples ? By the 

 barrel ? " " That's the way I try to buy them, 

 but when I get them home I generally find I 

 have bought them by the top layer."— C/iicaf/o 

 Tj'ibune. 



Many people have the idea that eggs are only 

 used on the breakfast-table and for ordinary 

 purposes. Eggs are used in hundreds of 

 thousands in many manufactures. Late years 

 they have been used in the composition of toilet 

 soaps. 



