234 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Mar., 1899. 
Wheat and maize and many grasses are subject to “ergot,” which is extremely 
poisonous, but no active poisonous principle exists in them or in any of the 
serghums. Possibly the Kafir corn may have been so affected, but Mr. Bailey 
is not prepared to say that ergot is found on sorghums. 
There is a weed which grows in the wheat and maize ficlds all over the 
colony called Lolium temulentum, more familiarly known as the “ Drunken 
Darnel.” This is the tare mentioned in Scripture, although properly speaking 
it is not a tare at all. This plant is poisonous, and Mr. Bailey says it is 
probable that the horses which died ate some of ‘this. 
We shall be glad to hear from anyone who has lost stock in consequence 
of feeding on Kafir corn, but so far there is no conclusive evidence that the 
deaths recorded have arisen from this cause. 
RUNNING AN APIARY FOR WAX ALONE. 
Recurrrne to our previous remarks on this subject, arising out of a communi- 
cation to the Journal of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, we note that that 
journal quotes from Simmins’ book, “A Model Bee Farm,” as follows :—* To 
produce wax in quantity, a colony must be run for extracted honey, and at 
suitabie intervals alternate the combs of brood or stores with starters only in 
the frames. Between the stored combs, these would be built rather thin, but 
the sealed combs are to be removed and the honey extracted as soon as the new 
ones are built to about two-thirds of the frame capacity, other empty frames 
taking their place, and so on in rotation. ‘This process cannot be carried on to 
any great extent between brood combs, except as described for spring work or 
where a young queen presides over the colony, otherwise some drone comb 
will be built, and the production of useless drones shows a great defect in 
management.” 
TO MEASURE AN IRRHGULAR PIECE OF LAND. 
In the case of a four-sided field, each of the sides being of different length, a 
surveyor would commence by running a line which would divide the field into 
two triangles, and would then calculate their area by a mathematical process 
unintelligible to most working farmers, We can show, however, that any man 
who can add and multiply may reckon up the number of acres in any four-sided 
field without recourse to either surveyor or trigonometry, 
We wili suppose a fieid whose four sides are respectively, 4°20, (42), 6°50 
(63), 10:10 (107;), and 2:80 (2) chains in length, as shown in the diagram— 
Hirst, add the two opposite sides together, and divide by 2— 
A 10°10 B 
2°80 
D 
C 
A B+CD= 10:10 + 650 = 16:60 + 2= 8°30. 
2 
AID AIBC = COG eos 7 = Ws BHO), 
Now multiply these two results together— 
8°30 x 3°50 = 2:90500. 
Cut off 5 figures from the right. (Note that in ordinary decimal multipli- 
cation four figures would be cut off.) We have now— 
2°90500 ; or 2 acres and a fraction. 
