JuXK  1,  189G.] 
Supplement  to  the  “ Tropical  AgriculturUty 
8G5 
termed  in  Ce3’lon)  “ miuTian.”  The  labours  and 
achievements  of  Dr.  Simp.son — who,  bj'  the  waj^, 
was  a visitor  here  not  verj-  lo!ig  ago—  may  well  put 
our  Veterinary  Surgeons  to  the  blush.  “ With  the 
microbe  now  in  our  hands,’’  says  tliis  benefactor 
of  the  agriculturist,  “ I consider  it  to  be  merelj'  a 
matter  of  time  to  prepare  a vaccine  which  shall  not 
only  be  protective,  but  which  shall  also  give  us  con- 
trol over  the  disease.’’  For  the  present  we  can 
onlj’^  heartily  congratulate  Dr.  Simpson  and  wish 
him  farther  success  in  his  bacteriological  re- 
searches. 
The  quarantins  premises  of  the  Government 
dairy  were  declared  an  infected  area  on  the  16th  ult. 
owing  to  the  occurrence  of  foot  and  mouth  disease. 
We  are  glad  to  state  that  the  daily  stock  are 
once  more  in  good  health. 
THE  GOVERN.MENT  STOCK  F.\RM  AT 
TRINIDAD. 
We  have  for  the  first  time  seen  a report  on  the 
working  of  this  institution.  This  report  is  of 
special  interest  to  us,  since  it  was  his  experience  of 
the  Trinidad  daily  that  led  our  late  Governor,  S'r 
Arthur  Havelock,  to  suggest  and  afterwards  sanc- 
tion the  establishing  of  the  Ceylon  Government 
Daily.  The  interests  of  the  Trinidad  Stock  Farm 
are  more  varied  than  those  of  the  Ceylon  D dry 
Farm,  inasmuch  as  while  the  latter  confines  its 
operations  to  the  ])roduction  of  a suppl}’’  of  whole- 
some milk  for  use  in  Government  liospitals  and 
the  breeding  of  superior  .stock,  ihe  former  is 
further  concerned  with  horse-breeding  and  ponltiy- 
keeping.  As  concerning  us  more  nearlj'  we  shall 
coiiHiie  our  remarks  to  that  part  of  the  report 
which  deals  with  the  working  of  the  cattle  farm. 
The  3'ear  1895  was,  we  note,  a successful  one 
both  financiallj’^  and  as  regards  health  of  stock. 
133,308  quarts  of  milk  were  produced  at  a cost  of 
R3‘87  cents  (verj’  nearly'  8 cents  in  local  currency) 
and  supplied  to  the  hospitals  and  jail : there  being 
an  increase  of  22,053  quarts  of  milk  over  the 
previous  j’ear’s  output.  The  daily  average  of  the 
cows  milked  was  73,  yielding  just  5 quarts  daily 
per  cow  throughout  the  j^ear.  This  is  truly  said 
to  be  a good  average  jdeld  for  the  tropic.*,  taking 
as  it  does  into  account  heifers  with  first  calves  and 
drying-off  cows.  The  following  is  the  dail^^  diet  of 
artificial  food  per  cow — totaling  8 lbs. — and  given 
as  n thin  mash  : Feeding  flour,  2 lb. ; lyemeal. 
2 lb.;  cotton  seed  meal,  1 lb.;  coconut  meal,  3 lb. 
The  term  “ feeding  flour  ” is  new  to  us,  and  we 
are  iinfortunatel.y  unable  to  m.ake  out  to  what 
particular  form  of  food  it  refers  to.  The  feed  is 
divided  into  two  meals  and  given  at  6 a.m.  and 
2 p in.  Except  at  milking  hours  the  cattle  are  in 
the  pastures,  sunshine  or  rain.  The  manager  is  of 
opinion  that  coconut  cake,  no  doubt  the  same  as 
our  “ poonac,”  is  not  appreciated  sulficieiith"  in 
Trinidad,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  very  much  more 
used  than  it  is.  The  Cejdon  coconut  cake  is  the 
ordinary  diet  of  working  bullocks  and  has  little 
reputation  as  a diet  for  milk  cattle.  The  Govern- 
ment analyst  reporting  on  the  milk  of  the  herd 
remarks  : “ The  milk  from  the  general  herd  is  of 
first-class  qualitj'^  or  slightly  superior  to  the  milk 
of  English  dairies.”  It  is  interesting  to  jiote  that  a 
cow  from  the  farm  won  the  first  prize  at  the  Agri- 
cultural Show  of  the  j’ear  for  cows  giving  the  best 
qu.'intitj'^  of  qualitj'  of  milk.  The  animal,  des- 
cribed as  a cross-bred  zebu,  yielded  at  the  trial 
21  Imperial  pints.  For  breeding  purposes  a red 
polled  bull  was  imported  from  England  at  the  high 
CJ.st  of  .£64,  but  owing  to  the  effects  of  the  climate 
the  animal  has  turned  out  almost  a complete 
failure.  The  manager  refers  to  what  seems  to  be 
his  only  trouble  with  his  cattle— viz.  the  attack 
of  the  larva  of  a fly  which  has  been  identified  as 
Comp<omyia  macellaria.  In  this  connection  wo 
have  another  advertisement  for  the  well-known 
disinfectant  so  coniraonly  used  in  all  dairies,  for. 
says  the  manager,  “As  a remed_y  to  destroy'  the 
larva,  I find  Jeye’s  fluid  the  best  and  cleanest.” 
When  we  read  that  “theheallh  of  the  stock  was 
perfect  throughout  the  ,years  ” we  are  led  to  think 
that  Trinidad  must  be  a particularly  healthy  colony 
for  stock,  or  that  the  circ  of  the  health  of  the 
animals  must  be  in  veiy  good  hands.  Altogether 
the  report  under  notice  is  a very  satisfactoiy  one, 
especially  ns  regards  tiie  cattle  farm.  We  are  not 
surprised  that  our  late  Governor  should  have 
suggested  the  e tablishment  of  a Government  Dairy 
in  Ceylon  after  his  ac<(uaintance  with  so  successful 
an  e.stablishment  as  the  Trinidad  Stock  Farm, 
We  heartilj'  congratulate  the  manager  on  the  good 
results  of  his  work. 
EXFERl-MENTS  V71TH  PADDY. 
The  following  extract  from  the  Annual  Report 
for  the  year  1S94-95  on  the  Durdwan  Experimental 
Farm,  dealing  wi'li  the  results  of  experinionts  in 
the  manuring  of  paddy  with  different  fertilizers  is 
of  local  interest : — 
The  experiment  with  paddy  has  been  carried  on 
for  four  years  with  tiic  ordinary  variety  of  trans- 
planted winter  (aman)  paddj'  commonly  cultivated 
by  the  ryots  of  Durdwan,  the  amount  of  seed 
sow'u  being  also  the  same  as  that  ordinarily’  used 
by  ryots,  viz.,  15  seers  per  acre.  The  soil  on 
which  this  experiment  has  been  conducted  consists 
of  a rather  heavy’  loam,  such  as  prevails  in  the 
neighbourhood.  The  treatment  of  thp  lots  is 
noted  below: — Ploughings,  5;  harrowing,  1; 
weeding,  1 ; and  hoeing,  1.  The  manures  supplied 
and  the  results  obtainod  in  the  last  two  years  are 
given  in  the  following  statement : — 
4^ 
o 
3- 
c5 
Treatment  witli 
f 
V 
refereiive  to  luanurc. 
V 
s 
Quantity  .applied 
s 
per  acre. 
Mds. 
s.  c. 
Gib 
0.1 
Cowdung  I-IO 
0 
0 
Gbb 
9 
Unmanured 
GGb 
9 
Castor-cake  6 
() 
0 
67b 
9 
Cowdung  1.50 
0 
0 
GSb 
9 
Unmanured 
69b 
9 
Bonenieal  3 
6 
0 
70b 
9 
Do  3 
0 
0 
716 
9 
Uninanured 
726 
Bonenieal  3 0 
.Saltpetre  0 30 
0 
0 
Oi’TTi  RN  PFu  Aciu;. 
1893 
-94. 
1894-9.'.. 
Grain. 
Straw. 
Grain. 
.Straw, 
lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
3,041 
4,388 
8,291 
4,287 
1,343 
1,714 
1,330 
1,577 
3,-334 
4,114 
3,195 
4,251 
4,448 
5,091 
3 840 
5,279 
1,046 
3,291 
1,407 
2,743 
4, ,521 
0,295 
3,826 
5,993 
3,703 
5,801 
4,637 
6,267 
1,780 
2,332 
1,574 
2,061 
j 4,090 
0,308 
4,673 
0,377 
N.B. — Plots  645  and  675  received  100  maunda 
and  50  raaunds  of  cowulung  respectively  last  year 
on  Dr.  Leather’s  suggestion,  instead  of  isO  maunds 
per  acre  ns  in  previous  years. 
