Edible Products. 



iMarch, 1909, 



or any other hay. Its possibilities if 

 shredded and compressed, or if mixed 

 with other fodders and compressed, are 

 great and worthy of being exploited. 

 If during the coming season all of you 

 will experiment for yourselves and in 

 due course give our Association the 

 benefit of your experience, I am 

 sure it will be greatly appreciated and 

 be of great benefit to us all. I am 

 indebted to Mr. C. W. Mally, Eastern 

 Province Entomologist, for the general 

 idea of the experiment and also for 

 many useful suggestions. 



At a subsequent meeting, Mr. Hards 

 submitted the following :— When reading 

 my paper on Mealie Hay at our last 

 meeting, I promised to let you know 

 the result of the analysis of this fod- 

 der. I now submit a summary of re- 



Kjrt received through the Agricultural 

 epartment from the Government 

 Analytical Laboratory on the analysis 

 of samples of Mealie Grain and Cob, and 

 Mealie Hay submitted by me from the 

 bulk of crop harvested and referred to in 

 that paper. For the purpose of com- 

 parison I also submit the analyses of two 

 other important fodders, viz., Lucerne 

 Hay and Cape Oats. The analyses are 

 taken from the Cape Agricultural Jour- 

 nal, and the latter represents 52 samples 

 from eleven districts including Alex- 

 andria. These tables are well worthy of 

 your attention and consideration, bear- 

 ing as they do upon the feeding value of 

 the fodder in question, viz.. Mealie Hay. 



Analysis. 



Mealie Hay. 





Cob and 



Leaves and 



Lucerne 



Cape 





Grain. 



Stalks. 



Hay. 

 14-3 



Oats. 



Moisture 



... 25-37 



16-33 



9-85 



Proteids 



9J6 



7-82* 



14-7 



9 53 



Fat 



... 1'57 



L25 



26 



6 03 



Ash 



1-24 



8-91 



6-3 





Carboy d rates, in- 









cluding 



Fibre 62-66 



65-69 



28-5 



60-77 



Fibre 



3-91 



21-33 



33-7 



10-20 



Agricultural Journal, Cape of Good 

 Hope, Vol. XXXIIL, No. 5, November, 

 1908. 



* [In order to avoid misunderstanding and pos- 

 sible disappointment it is as well to point out that 

 the comparison of a single analysis, as given above, 

 with an average cf 52 analyses, of other fcdders, is 

 misleading, and can have very little actual value. 

 The sample of mealie hay or stover (leaves and 

 stalks) submitted was evidently abnormal, 

 possibly owing to conditions which were not 

 fully known: The proteid content of 7"82 per cent, 

 approaches very near to the maximum shown in 

 analyses published by the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. But the average shown by 

 the American investigations sinks to between 2 and 

 3 per cent., a condition which would probably be 

 found similar in Africa, were an equal number 

 of samples analysed and an average struck of the 

 whole. The proteid contents of field-cured stover 



PADDY IN MADRAS PRESIDENCY. 



(Extract from Report of the Madras 

 Department of Agriculture, 1907-8.) 



Paddy.— This, the most valuable and 

 important crop of the Presidency, is 

 now receiving the attention it deserves. 

 Experiments are being made on all the 

 wet land farms to ascertain the best 

 number of seedlings to plant in a bunch, 

 and the best distances for planting. Mr. 

 Sampson was the first to commence 

 these experiments on some of the House 

 Farms under hi9 management under the 

 Court of Wards. Their object is, firstly, 

 to see whether better crops, i.e., crops 

 yielding more grain of better quality, 

 cannot be got by allowing each plant 

 more room for the proper development 

 of its root system ; as many as fifty 

 tillers have been observed on a single 

 plant which had full room for develop- 

 ment ; and, secondly, to save waste of 

 seed. The cost of weeding is reduced, 

 and possibly an economy of water can 

 also be effected. As much as 150 lbs. of 

 seed is sown per acre in parts of the 

 Presidency. In the Southern districts 

 probably the average is not less than 

 80-100 lbs. per acre. It is believed that 

 20 lbs. of good seed would be ample. On 

 the Saidapet Farm 3 90 acres planted at 

 the rate of 11 5 lbs. of seed per acre gave 

 a normal crop. If, as seems to be the 

 case, equally good or better crops can 

 be raised without any extra cost, with 

 the smaller seed rate, the saving of 

 60 lbs. of seed per acre would mean a 

 large addition to the food supply of 

 the country. It is estimated that the 

 area under paddy in the Presidency is 

 about 7,400,000 acres. 



On the Coimbatore Farm the singly- 

 planted plots gave, on the whole, results 

 equal to those planted on the local 

 system. Mr. Shepperson's interesting 

 account of his experiments, in the 

 Administration Report, is typical of the 

 work being done on all the farms. At 

 Palur singly-planted Banku paddy as a 

 ■'Kar"crop gave 1101 M.M. per acre 

 against 740 M.M. of local Kar paddy 

 planted in the local way. In the Tinne- 

 velly district, where the seed rate is 



in America are shown to vary from a minimum 

 of a little over one per cent, to something over 

 8 per cent., with an average of Between 2 and 3 

 per cent., Mr. Hards' sample thus comes just 

 under the maximum, but to get anything like an 

 exact notion of the feeding value of this fodder, it 

 wot Id be necessary to sample a number of such 

 crops for analysis and find the average. It would 

 have been better and more satisfactory had this 

 been done in this case instead of basing deduotions 

 on the results of the analysis of one sample only. 

 — Ed. Agricultural Journal.] 



