1 Aprin, 1898.| QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 259 
The corn yielded 11°25 tons of green forage, or 4°1 tons of cured forage per 
-acre. That of which silage was made was cut into three-quarter inch lengths 
and putin the silo. The other was shocked in the field and hauled to the barn 
in October, and cut, as needed to feed, into the same lengths as the silage. It 
was found that it cost 6°3 per cent. more to prepare the silage for feeding than 
it did the field-cured fodder. This difference was mainly on account of the 
extra cost of hauling the green fodder. The experiment was made with milch 
cows. The grain ration fed with each was a good and ample one, and the same 
in both cases. They were fed an equal amount of dry matter with both silage 
and dry fodder. ‘The silage they ate up clean, but left some of the dry fodder. 
It was found that the losses in dry matter were about the same in siloing as in 
dry curing. 
The trial lasted twenty-four days; the cows were divided into two lots. 
One lot fed on silage twelve days and fed dry fodder the same length of time ; 
then they were changed about, those having silage were fed dry fodder, and 
those first fed dry fodder were fed silage. 
It was found that when fed dry fodder, the cows fell off in flow of milk 
much faster than when fed silage, so that the yield of milk was 12°8 per cent., 
and of butter fat 10°4: per cent. greater from silage, than from its equivalent in 
dry fodder. 
This grain from feeding silage is accounted for in part, at least, by 
the greater digestibility of silage over dry fodder, and it was not that the 
silage-fed cows drew on their bodies for this extra amount of milk, for when 
they were weighed it was found they had changed in weight. 
In summing the whole thing up, it was found that taking everything into 
account—the cost and proceeds—that, with milk at 1 cent a lb., or about 
2 cents a quart, an acre of this corn, yielding 11°25 tons of green forage, 
brought 10 dollars more when siloed than a like acre dry-field cured. 
A VALUABLE FODDER GRASS. ° 
Mr. H. M. Wixtrams, of Florida, Wollongbar, New South Wales, writes: 
as follows to Mr. John Mahon, Instructor in Dairying, Queensland Department 
of Agriculture :— ; 
I forwarded you through Mr. H. V. Jackson 51b. of Paspalum dilatatum 
seed, which kindly accept for experimental purposes. 
I send herewith full report of this grass with the other information you 
required. Any further information I shall be glad to give at any time. 
Tf you should elect to purchase seed from me for the Government, I shouJd 
like to know early approximate requirements, as I must arrange my seed 
paddocks according to demands. JI may possibly have 3-cwt. of this season’s 
seed left, but I cannot tell for a few days until Sydney seedsmen’s orders are 
filled; this seed is for sowing in July. My next season’s saving will commence 
‘in November, and I must hard-graze all seed paddocks required in rotation, and 
hold them up not later than August. My seed is supplied in same order as the 
orders are booked, so “first come first served.” 
Could you kindly send me a small parcel of blue-grass (Andropogon 
sericeus)? { have heard a good deal of it, and that it is a highly prized 
Queensland grass. I should much like to experiment with it in pastures here. 
If you can send me some seed, kindly say when it should be sown, and 
any other information about it you may think useful. 
