Annual net Income, £594,370. 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
NE YW ZH ALANRN DD 
Insurance Co., Ltd. 
This old Established Colonial Office covers every description of 
Fire, Marine, and Accident Business, 
January 1, 1908 
At Lowest Rates. 
£6,000,000 paid in Claims. 
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN BRANCH, 112 KING WILLIAM STREET, ADELAIDE. 
LOUIS E. WILSON, Manager. 
Active Agents Wanted. 
The Harm, re 
Conservation of Fodder. 
Any vegetation that stock will eat in 
its natural state will make good ensilage, 
and it will be much improved by the 
operation, especially for cattle. It is said 
that cattle assimilate ensilage better than 
they do any other food, and the reason 
for that is that the change effected in the 
silo is nearly or quite that which is brought — 
about in the first stomach of the ruminant 
animal. Barley and tares sown imme- 
diately after the first rains ace very suit- 
able and profitable for a first filling. 
These will be ready to put away in the 
silo (say) about the 1st of October, and 
the land can be at once ploughed and 
sown with maize, which will be fit for 
pitting about the end of Febauary, Fifty 
tons of fodder have been obtained in this 
way without irrigation, viz., from the two 
crops. Cockspurs, variegated and Scotch 
thistles, if put away in a succulent condi- 
tion, can be taken out six months after in 
prime condition, and stock will deyour 
them ravenously; in short, the silo has 
been styled ‘the farmer’s save-all ’— 
nothing can come amiss to it. Mangold 
The Melbourne 
Tailoring Depot, 
No. 10 ARCADE, Adelaide. 
Absolutely the best in the States, 
Customers have a choice of over 2,000 
patterns. : 
New Goods now open for Spring and 
‘Summer wear. 
~ First-class fit and workmanship guar- 
anteed. 
NOTE THE ADDRESS, and profit 
by ordering your next. suit from us. We 
post free to country customeis patterns 
and self-measurement forms. 
Please mention this paper. 
or turnip tops, cabbage leaves, surplus 
fodder of any kind, can be siloed and kept 
until periods of want Every few years 
we have seasons of plenty, when thotisands 
of acres of the natural grasses might be 
mown and siloed for use in the years of 
famine. 
The following is a crop-mixture that 
can be especially recommended for the 
preparation of silage for dairy eattle :— 
Hali a bushel of horse-beans are mixed 
with one-third of a bushel of maize, and 
are sown or planted per acre, in rows 3 ft. 
to 34 ft. apart. The method of cultivation 
to be followed is similar to that for the 
culture of fodder corn. When the corn 
reaches the glazing stage of growth, the 
product from 2 acres of the mixture 
(which being grown together is neces- 
sarily handled as one crop) is cut and put 
into the silo. together with the heads 
from half an acre of sunflowers. The 
sunflower heads may be reaped with a 
common sickle, carried to the autting-box 
on a cart or waggon, and put through it, 
on and with the maize and horse beans. 
Maize and all other crops intended for 
ensilage should be fully grown but still 
quite green and succulent. With oats 
and barley harvesting should commence 
when the ears are formed; maize when 
the cobs begin to glaze, and leguminous 
crops when the podsare formed, No more 
should be cut at atime than can be re- 
moved right away to the pit or stack 
before it begins to wither. 
Silos may be pits dug wholly under- 
ground, constructions built either partly 
or entirely above the surface of the ground, 
or as is now very generally practised mere 
silo stacks put up like an ordinary rick of 
hay, and then pressed. In many cases 
some old barn or farm building is utilised 
and converted into a silo, with results 
equally satisfactory. 
In the case of a specially-constructed 
silo itis desirable to have it as near as 
possible to the feeding-place. In the case 
of stack siles, on the other hand, it is 
often convenient to build them out in the 
field where the crop has been growing, so 
as to save tle carting of bulky and loose 
material, and to feed the stock subse- 
quently, either in close proximity to it, 
or else cart ihe silage to them in its more 
compressed form, at a time when both 
men and teams are generally less hard- 
worked on the farm. 
A mere hole or pit dug in the ground 
is the simplest kind of silo known. These 
give good results when the soil is dry and 
sound. ‘lhey consist simply of a pit, in 
which the maize, sorghum, tops of sugar- 
cane, or any sort of green fodder, is laid 
horizontally in the direction of the length 
* of the pif. 
The walls shonld be as near as possible 
perpendicular to ensure the better setting 
of the stored fodder, and when the level 
of the ground has been reached the green 
stuff is still heaped on regularly, and is 
gradually brought toa point. After having 
allowed the mass of fodder to subside 
somewhat for a day or two, it is covered 
up by means of shovels with a layer 20 
inches thick of the loose excavated earth. 
The earth must be well trodden, more 
especially at the sides, where decomposi- 
tion resultin ; from access of air is usually 
noticed in the silage The steady and 
continued compression brings on a corres- 
pondiug subsidence and further shrinkage 
in the bulk; auy cracks which may occur 
during that period are patched up directly 
they are observed, No other covering is 
required and the earth may be kept from 
contact with the green fodder by means 
of a thin layer of straw scattered over the 
surface. 
When there is a rise in the ground and 
-a cutting or trench can be economically 
dug by means of a plough, followed by an 
earth scoop, the waggons with their load 
of green stuff are driven along it, and 
their contents emptied as they move on; 
the trench heing filled up in successive 
layers, which settle gradually under the 
trampling of the animals and the weight of 
the carts. A large quantity of fodder has 
thus been saved at a comparatively trifling 
cost, and has turned out as goud silage as 
any made in more elaborate structures 
E. BLACKEBY, 
BOOT & SHOH MANUFACTURER, 
226 Rundle St., Adelaide. 
CUT SOLES A SPECIALITY. 
es 
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