258 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JouURNAL. [1 Apri, 1898. 
The average barnyard manure contains a larger percentage of nitrogen, 
as compared with its potash and phosphoric acid, than is generally considered 
economical. An addition of from 30 1b. to 40 1b. of muriate of potash and 
100 Ib. of fine-ground natural phosphates (soft Florida or South Carolina floats) 
per ton of barnyard manure would greatly increase its value as an efficient and 
economical fertiliser. 
Judging by the amount used and by the expressed preference of growers, 
stable manure free from straw or other long bedding is the most desirable for 
use upon beds. Besides stable manure, farmyard, sheep, hogpen and hen- — 
house manure, and nightsoil are also available when used in compost; and if 
the compost has been lying long enough to have caused the materials to be 
reduced to a uniform well-mixed mass, there is nothing better for use at the 
time of transplanting to cover the young plants. 
In addition to these farm manures, chemical or commercial fertilisers are 
also available, and are used alone in connection with stable manure and in 
alternation with the same. Of late years these are being more and more used 
* by growers who are without a large number of farm animals and so far removed 
from large cities that they find stable manure too expensive, especially as the 
only advantage of stable manure over these is the humus it adds to the soil 
and its beneficial effect upon the mechanical condition of the soil, as already 
explained. 
TOMATOES. 
Mr. H. A. Tarpenr, manager of the Westbrook Experiment Farm, contributed 
an excellent article to the Journal of Ist December, 1897, on the cultivation 
of the tomato. His experiments with this fruit have been very successful, 
and we reproduce in this number a plate of some of the- prize varieties 
exhibited by Mr. Tardent at the Brisbane, Toowoomba, and Warwick shows. 
Writing on the subject, he says :—Mere theory is of little use if not supported 
by practice. As usual, with my method of growing them, the crop at the 
Westbrook Farm has been exceptionally heavy. The shape and appearance of 
the fruit were also perfect. Some specimens of the Crimson Cushion variety 
turned the scale at 20 oz. and measured 154 inches in circumference. Ail 
varieties did well, but the New Peach has been the favourite of the season, 
both with visitors to the farm and with the ladies of Toowoomba and Brisbane, 
who saw it at the shows lately held there. ‘These shows have also confirmed 
my conviction that tomatoes are a most profitable crop to grow, and that there 
is a considerable demand for them. One Brisbane firm alone, Messrs. Verney 
and Sons, informed me that they were anxious to buy from 20 to 30 tons of 
tomatoes annually, at a price ranging between 13d. and 2d. per lb. No other 
new facts about the growing of tomatoes have so far come to my knowledge 
except one, supplied by a veteran Toowoomba farmer, Mr. Glencross Smith, 
which I think is well worth a trial. Mr. Smith assured me that a handful of 
kainit spread round the plant when transplanting is sufficient to keep off the 
destructive cut-worm. Should experience confirm this, then one of the 
greatest drawbacks to tomato-growing would be overcome. 
DRIED CORN FODDER FP. SILAGE. 
BuiErin 122 of the New Jersey ‘Experiment Station contains a detailed 
account of a carefully conducted experiment carried on to determine whether 
or not it is more profitable to make fodder corn into silage than to dry cure it 
in the field. 4 
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