4 . THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
enn 
The use of nitrate of soda at the rate 
of 3 lbs. per tree greatly promoted the 
general vigor of the tree, increased the 
average size of the apples one-third over 
trees receiving a general fertilizer, and 
gave 1auch better results than when only 
1b. of the samo fertilizer alone or with 
3 lbs. muriate or sulphate of potash or 
20 lbs. slacked lime was used. “The 
fruit is not so well colored as that of 
other trees, and was later maturing. On 
this clayey cherty soil. very deficient in 
humus, no marked effect followed the use 
of the otker fertilizers mentioned above, 
when used separately. Lime seemed to 
help the foliage and color the apples on 
trees treated, while the muriate of potash’ 
gave a very bright winesap red to the 
-normally brownish Arkansas, or M. B. 
Twigs. The resets in the orchard were 
found to make good growth when care 
was given them and a sufficient fertilizer 
to insure plenty of plant food within 
reach of the roots. 
Carbon bisulphid was found an efficient 
remedy for killing sassafars sprouts when 
used at the rate of a teaspoonful toa 
tablespoonful on sprouts 3 to 5 feet tall. 
It was poured down the stems, beginning 
6 inches above the ground. It appeared 
to kill the roots in all instances. Protec. 
tion from rabbits was secured by painting 
the trees with white lead mixed with pure 
linseed oil. 
The most serious harvest injuries to 
apples were found to come from bruises 
originating in careless handling by the 
fruit pickers and in the crushing of the 
riper spesimens by the harder specimens 
in heading in the barrels. By shaking 
down the barrels every tine a half bushel 
is put in, and filling only slightly above 
the chine, this source of iujury and loss 
can be avoided. 
Silos and Silage. 
It would be well if all those interested 
in farming and stock-breeding would 
bear in mind the inexorable fact that the 
physical history of the world invariably 
repeats itself. What has been in the 
past will invariably again be in the future, 
whether the result be advantageous or in- 
juriousto man. As there have been. and 
_ will be again, periods of plenty and pros- 
perity, of rich harvests, green fields, and 
increasing stock, so there have been, and 
again will be periods of bad harvests¢ 
absence of herbage and water, and conse- 
quent decimation of stock. Alternate 
periods of drought, flood, and genial 
Seasons are a characteristic of the geo- 
graphical position. the geological forma- 
tion, and the climatic conditions of 
Australia. 
Accepting these statements, as they 
must be accepted, as facts, borne out by 
the experience of a hundred years settle- 
ment} it behoves us to consider, not only 
the means of disposal of superabundant 
crops, whether of wheat. sugar, or fruit. or 
of abundant supplies of dairy products, 
of cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs, but 
what is of even greater importance. the 
means of combating the most destructive 
of all the enemies of the “Man on the 
- Land ”’—drought. 
For all ills there is a remedy, if it can 
only be found, and if, when found, men 
are Wise enough to apply it in time, and 
we are now concerned with the means at 
hand of minimising, if not completely 
neutralising, the effects of long-continued 
drought. 
Consider our late splendid seasons, and 
think of the enormous wealth of green 
crops in the farming districts, the vast 
areas of rolling downs inthe West, densley 
clothed with rich, fattening grasses, which 
_ have been so much in evidence during the 
ast four years. Then carry the mind 
back to the four years preceeding 1902, 
when the Western country was a desert, 
when flocks and herds died by millions, 
whenthe farmer could raise nothing to 
to sell or to feed his starving stock, help- 
lessly dying off until stall and byre were 
tenantless, when the sugar-planters, in- 
stead of crushing their cane and turning 
out thousands of tons of sugar, could put 
the stunted crop to no other use than to 
sell it as green fedder. We desire to bring 
these two pictures vividly before the 
mind’s eye, in order to bring home to the 
primary producer the culpaple negligence 
of which he was then guilty, and of which 
he will yet again be guilty, unless he can 
be awakened to the fact that the safety 
and lives of his stock, and, consequently, 
his own livelhood, depend upon his care 
and forethought. No dairy stock need 
perish during a drought; not a cow or. 
sheep need starve, although the heavens 
be as brass. “Hvery dairy farmer and 
grazing farmer has it in his power to pre- 
vent this. Bnt how hard it is to induce 
men to move in the right direction; how 
easily do they forget the cruel lessons of 
the past. Let but the genial rains fall, let 
the wheat and grass and the lucerne cover 
the ground, and straight away all the evil 
days are forgotten in the luxury of the 
present, and men are contented to say, 
“ As it is to-day. so it will be to-morrow,:’ 
But to-morrow may provide a sad awak- 
ening, and then the careless farmer is in 
the position of the grasshopper which 
sang all the summer but made no pro- 
vision for winter. The grasshopper died, 
and.so did the cattle. 
It seems almost superflous to tell men 
onthe land how to avert the evils of 
drought, for all have heard of 
Tue SiLo, 
but few are aware that the first silo in the 
Australasian States was constructed in the ~ 
early days of colonisation, by a South 
Australian farmer, a Mr. Charles Rake, of 
Enfield. Dairy farmers form the neigh- 
bouring colonies visited South Australia 
to see how silage jwas made. Then they 
went back and adopted the ensilage of 
fodder with highly profitable results. 
From that day the silo became an_insti- 
tution in the States (then called colonies) 
~ fully. 
NovempBer 1, 1906 
But the erection of silos is still anything 
but universal amonyst stockowners, and 
until the farmer without a silo will be 
looked upon as a rare ayis in terris. 
Tum Principal or THE SILO, 
The burying of brewers’ grains and 
certain forage crops, says Storer (“ Agri- 
culture in some of its Relations with 
Chemistry ”), has long been customary in 
certain localities, without subjecting them 
to any process of drying, by covering 
it with earth. In recent years, instead of 
digging pits, or, as the French say, “Silos” 
and covering it with earth. In recent 
years, instead of digging mere holes in 
the earth, it has been found advantageous 
to build the silo in the form of a high bin 
or compartment, in, or close to, the barn 
in which the ensilageis to be fed out to 
animals, As an improvement on tho old — 
plan, silos were covered with boards, 
weighted with bags of sand or stones, but 
when high, deep silos were constructed, it 
was discovered that very little extraneous 
pressure was needed in a tight, well- 
covered bin, and to-day the material in 
the silo is usually covered with a layer of 
bush grass or waste chaff a foot or two j2 
thickness, : 
The principle on which the preservation 
of silage is based is mainly fermentation 
and the checking of fermentation. It is 
a matter of experience that green yege 
table matters packed firmly in a gilo oF 
tightly compressed in a stack. do not fet 
ment rapidly and putrify as they would 
do if they were left in loose heaps, The 
fermentations which actually occur in & 
well-ordered siio are, comparatively speak 
ing, mild in form and small in degree. 
is true that in a silo a cortatn amount 
this fermentation always occurs at first. 
and that the degree or amount of fermel- 
tation my yary considerably, according 
to the kind and condition of the crop, aud 
with the circumstances under whieh the 
crop has been stored. But in a well 
ordered silo this incipient fermentation 
8)0n ceases after the air which was eD- 
tangled in the forage has been used Up 
It is known, moreover, that the action a 
the microscopic organisms which caus? 
fermentation is checked by the accumw 
lation of certain chemical substances whi 
are produced during the fermentations 
notably by lactic acid and by the carbone 
acid gas which saturates the materials ant 
tends to preserve them from decay: 
But then, perhaps, it is as much fo 
retaining carbonic acid gas inside the § 
as it is for excluding the outside air t 
men insist on the importance of ayoidind 
open eracks, permeable walls, and ¢@ 
devices for draining off water from t)? 
silo. . . . . Generally sperking, th? 
fermentation of silage will be less pr 
nounced in proportion as air has bee? 
more completely excluded from it 1) 
taking pains to cut the fodder fine and P. 
treading it into the silo firmly and ¢ 
During the process of fermentat 
the temperature of the silage rises” 
siderably—to 90 degrees, 100 degrees, ° 
120 degrees Fahr,, or even to 130 degt 
150 degrees, or 160 degrees. At tem 
