AuGUST 10, 1903. 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
AMBER CANE. 
A. few opinions have already been given 
in the early part of this paper on amber 
cane. In addition to these, Mr. Grant 
writes: —‘‘In respect to the feeding quali- 
ties of the various fodders, I must say I 
believe very much in amber cane, I find 
that my cows are very fond of it, and that 
they milked well while being fed on it, 
giving an increase of butter. “I think that 
it is better than maize, as it stands the hot 
and dry weather, while the maize withers.” 
Mr. McGrath :—‘Amber cane I would 
class as equal to maize for autumn feed, 
although my cows milk better on it than 
they do on maize, and, unlike some others, 
I have never had any trouble with it in 
feeding to the cows, as I never feed it un- 
til the seed is well out.” ; 
Mr. Grant:—“This plot has done very 
well and gave a good weight of green fod- 
der. - It was cut on the 4th March, and 
has since made a growth of fully 3 feet to 
7th May, and as it. has tillered out there 
is again a good weight of fodder.” 
Mr. Gooding, Moe:—‘With respect to 
the forage crops I will place them in ‘his 
way—lst amber cane, 2nd Egyptian: corn, 
' Japanese 
3rd Kaffir corn, 4th teosinte, 5th maize, 
6th pearl millet. You see I have placed 
the maize fifth because you only get one 
‘crop, and a great amount of labor in cut- 
ting the maize, as we feed off the others 
and get two and sometimes three crops ‘ot 
them.” FHsedd 
Steele Bros:, Rosebrook :—“With regarJ] 
to feeding qualities, now that we have fed 
all the crops, we consider the amber cane 
comes first of all the fodder plots, 
as it would weigh much heavier 
than the others, and the stock 
seem to eat it with more of a 
relish. One advantage with the amber 
cane is that it will stand much longer than 
the maize without drying off, and, of 
course, that is a great advantage.” 
Puanters’ FRIEND. 
Mr. Henderson, Bairnsdale, places this 
trop first. Mr. Crowe, of Eltham, reports 
the Planters’ Friend did very little good 
here. Mr. Grant, of Upper Tambo, writes : 
—‘This is a crop I intend to grow next 
year. It is still green and succulent, May 
Ist, and all stock are fond of it. It has 
Millet, Bairnsdale. 
given good results in all ways; I have used 
it for horse feed, or cut it into chaff for 
calves that are hand reared. When fed 
to cows it gave a good increase of milk.” 
Mr. MeGrath, of Loch, writes: —‘My 
second choice after Japanese millet is 
imphee or Planters’ Friend which for later 
feed is undoubtedly better than maize as 
8 ag es ae ee tea 
aes 
sg ¥ . oy 
Teosinte (2 
the frost does not affect it nearly as much _ 
ag maize.” i 
TROSINTE. 
Most of the growers as yet are a little 
shy in expressing opinions on this crop, 
* 
ee sSeeeret ta 
Pearl Millet, Upper Tambo. 
owing, 
growth. On very many farms it 
has undoubtedly proved a _ failure. 
On others, however, exceedingly heavy 
yields have been obtained. The fol- 
lowing are some of the opinions received : 
—Mr. Grant, who had one of the mast.,, 
lot, writes: —“This crop ranks very high 
indeed in my estimation. The seed was 
sown on the 16th October. When, the hot 
weather came, in the middle of January, 
the teosinte grew very quickly, and con- 
tinued to do so in spite of the fact that ths 
official record of the rainfall during 
January, February, and March for this dis- 
trict was the lowest for many years. It 
will grow during hot dry weather, which! 
is a great consideration. When the stems 
are more than an inch thick they are so 
tender and succulent that young calves 
about two months old eat it readily. One 
trouble a dairyman has in many parts of 
Victoria is that about the time his hand- 
fed calves are fit to wean, the grass, al- 
though plentiful, is so dry that weaned 
calyes will not thrive until the autumn 
rains come. Teosinte will remedy that, for - 
Rows), Moe. 
I have proved they will do well on it.” 
Mr. McGrath, at the time of writing, 
had not commenced feeding this crop. He 
writes: —‘‘There is one of your fodders 
that I have not as yet had experience with, 
viz., teosinte. Ib is now (May 7th) grow- 
