Chilian Wheat Imports. 



537 



are also imported from Germany. Scythes and sickles are im- 

 ported from Austria. 



{Foreign Office Report, Annual Series, No, 2743.] 



The Government Dairy Expert of New South Wales, writ- 

 ing on the subject of ensilage, remarks that there is no 

 reason why silage, fed to dairy cows, should taint milk, 

 provided that it has been properly saved and made from 



suitable material. Ensilage, he points 

 Use of Silage for out, is simply exercising a rough con- 

 Milch Cows, trol over the process of fermentation, 



which all green plants will undergo when 

 cut. This fermentation is caused by micro-organisms, many 

 of which will also set up in milk and cream fermenta- 

 tions which are very detrimental to the manufacture ot 

 good butter, cheese, or condensed milk. Hence, when silage 

 is fed to dairy cows, care should be taken that none of the 

 pieces get into the milk. In fact, it is wiser not to feed it 

 while the cows art; being milked, as the organisms may float 

 about in the air, and it should be fed after, rather than 

 immediately before, milking. Silage which has become con- 

 siderably decomposed and smells very strongly should never 

 be fed to cows when being milked, or while milk is close to 

 the fodder troughs, as the odour from it is so strong that the 

 milk absorbs it, and becomes tainted in this manner, if in 

 no other. 



[Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales, December, 1901.] 



In his report to the Foreign Office, (Annual Series, 

 No. 2736) Sir Berry Cusack-Smith mentions that owing to 

 the failure of the Chilian wheat harvesr 



^Imports 6 ** of l9 °°' a large a uaBti ty of wheat was 

 imported into that country from Australia 

 and the United States. During the eight years, 1892- 1899, 

 the total imports of this cereal only amounted to about 5,000 

 tons; but in 1900 over 20,000 tons, of an estimated value of 

 about £ 1 20,000, arrived, though it is doubtful whether in 



