•Jan, 1, 1904.] Sup-gleriient to the " Tropical A griculiumt.' 
505 
new grouud each year. I should recommend poles 
to be planted about 12 feet apart, connected by 
fencing wire. To the fencing wire fasten the wire 
netting by means of wire. This description of 
fence could easily be shifted. The sleeping and 
laying apartments might be made of galvanized 
iron and wood, bolted. This also could be easily 
taken to pieces and put together again. Avoid 
having too much wood about your poultry, as the 
vermin and other insects find cosy retiring places 
in the crevices. 
Twenty good hens of such breeds as Minorca, 
Leghorn, Andaluaau, Spanish, Hamburg, Wyan- 
dotte, Red Cap or Orpington should at the least 
produce 10 eggs per day for seven mouths in the 
year. But it is as well to remember the old adage 
about not counting your chickens before they are 
hatched." "\rhat I wish to convey to you is that 
20 hens well-managed will produce more eggs 
tlian a troop of 50 or CO treated otherwise. To 
illustrate this, allow a heu to lay away. After she 
has laid 10, 13, 15 and sometimes 20 eggs she 
starts to incubate them. To lay these, say lo 
eggi", it takes her three weeks. The market value 
of those 15 eggs would be, say 2/6. She broods 
on them 21 days and remains with her brood two 
months, during which time no eggs are produced. 
Xow the hen penned up will lay her 30, 40 or 50 
eggs before she takes to the nesr. If you do not 
wish the hen to sit, remove her from the nest and 
run, and after a week's absence return her, and 
within a fortnight she will commence laying, pro- 
viding she is not moulting. This I have repeat- 
edly proved. So it is easily seen that, with a 
little extra feeding and attention, the penned hen 
returns a greater profit. The extra feeding and 
warmth stimulate egg production. In most loca- 
lities a greater profit is derived from the sale of 
eggs than the sale of birds for the table. 
( To be continued.^ 
THE YAM BEAN, 
This bean is known botanically as PacJtyrhizus 
tuberosns. Both tubers and pods are eaten, 
the latter in the young stage, as the mature 
beans are credited with acquiring poisonous pro- 
perties. The tubers grow as large as a medium or 
even large-sized turnip, and are as poor in quality. 
The plant is of American origin. 
The following analysis of tubers and seeds 
were sometime ago published in a Report of 
Agricultural Work at British Guiana by Messrs. 
Harrison and Jenman : — 
Yaji BEA^■. (Pachyehizcs tubebosus.) 
Tubers. Seed. 
Water ... ... 82-25 1.3-50 
Fats ... ... -30 25-04 
Resin ... ... -13 214 
"Albuminoids ... ... 1-05 20-94 
•Both the tubers and beans contain a poisonous 
resin, the latter yielding over.two per cent of it. 
This resin was found to be a very active fish poison. 
Apart from the presence of this substance, the beans 
exhibit a very high value as food stuffs, much 
resembling in composition the celebrated Soy-bean 
(Glycine Soja), 
Yam B£a>'. — {Contimud.) 
Tubers. 
Seed. 
Sucrose 
o yo 
Glucose 
•26 
-31 
IreCtOSe, Liunib, c\.c. 
1 U-^ 
1 Oo 
starch 
8-40 
9-00 
Digestible fibre 
2-14 
12-20 
Woody fibre ... 
-66 
4-43 
Mineral matters 
1-84 
,3-91 
100-00 
lOO'CK) 
Containing nitrogen .„ 
•166 
3-35 
"riXEKS" IN DAIRY HERDS. 
The Euglish Jersey Cattle Society have issued 
a second edition of their very useful handbook, — 
" Jersey Cattle : their Feeding and Mmagement" 
(Vinton & Co.). The work, which has been 
revised and enlarged, is based upon replies to 
questions on a variety of practical matters sent 
out to members of the society, and it may there- 
fore be regarded as embodying the results of the 
experience of the breeders of Jersey cattle in this 
country. The committee to whom the production 
of the present edition was entrusted comprised 
the Hon. Alexander E. Parker, Mr. W. Adams, 
Mr. F. R. Hervey Bathurst, Mr. Richardson Carr, 
Mr. G. Murray Smith, and Mr. Ernest Matthews, 
the last named undertaking the duties of editor, 
A new chapter in this edition deals with the 
subject of wasting diarrhoea, or, more precisely, 
parasitic gastro-enteritis.. As this disease is far 
from being peculiar to Jerseys, the information 
here brought together is likely to prove serviceable 
to cattle-breeders generally. In diflerent parts 
of the country the names of "wasters," "was- 
trels," "piners'' are applied to cattle of both 
sexes which pine or waste away, without exhi- 
biting any febrile symptoms or loss of appetite. 
The disease usually begins with diarrhcea, and in 
the case of animals in milk the yield of milk at 
once begins to decline, a feature which distin- 
guishes this disorder from ordinary diarrhoea. 
The results of recent investigations point to the 
presence of certain species of nematode worms, 
or thread-worms, in the fourth division of the 
ruminant stomach as Bssociated with and prob- 
ably causing the disease. Various suggested 
remedies that have proved more or less effective — 
specially in the direction of killing the nema- 
todes — are discussed, and a case that came within 
the experience of Mr. Matthews himself is worth 
mentioning. He has had several '• wasters " 
during the last ten years, and has tried various 
remedies, but without success. Keeping the 
animals in and giving them lime water to drink 
has sometimes temporarily improved their con- 
dition, though without effecting a permanent 
cure. In recent years he had invariably isolated 
the animals, and had them killed as soon as it 
became apparent that they were " wasters," and 
not suffering from the ordinary form of diarrhcea. 
Quite lately he has tried another method of treat 
ment. Having ascertained that a solution of 
tobacco was fatal to nematode worms, he gave 
