1 Arrin, 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 325 
150 degrees, when these fermenting bacteria are destroyed, and the breaking 
down of the starch into lactic and acetic acid is promptly arrested. The silage 
resulting is sweet and good. But if the material is improperly packed, or the 
silo not air-tight, or the fodder not matured, sufficient heat will not be developed 
to destroy the bacteria, and their continued working on the nitrogenous por- 
tions of the silage end by producing amides and ammonia. ‘The result will be 
poor and sour silage. The milk produced will have a taint similar to that of 
brewers’ slops. This was a few years ago the cause of much complaint, and 
some condensaries refused to buy milk from farmers using ensilage. Happily, 
the cause of the trouble being found proves the necessity of carefulness. The 
cows, it seems, will eat sweet or sour silage with equal readiness. 
The Silage Ration.—If the owner of a cow has not her welfare enough at 
heart to spend time in discovering her needs, he will never learn that his cows 
are individuals with feeling and peculiarities to be consulted. A patient study 
of rations and dairy form will give him a first-class herd, and with it will grow 
affection for the gentle-eyed cow. 
Forty pounds seems to be established as about the correct amount of 
silage a cow will consume daily, provided her other food is balanced to 
support her bodily needs. It is poor policy to ever allow a heavy-milking 
cow to grow weak and thin, for if she is not permanently injured she will 
give considerably less milk the next year as a balancing compensation, while 
she regains her own vigour. Underteeding is certain to bring sickly, stunted 
calves.—Pacific Rural Press: 
GROWING WATERCRESS. 
In 1895 the Revue Horticole published an article on cultivating watercress 
in a town house without the aid of running water, but in this case repeated 
waterings from a moat took the place of the usual stream. Brother Antonis, 
of the Beauvais Institute, has, however, just communicated to the Syndical 
Chamber of the Market Gardeners, of Amiens, a method of growing water- 
cress both on ordinary soil and on forcing-beds, as, says he, ‘‘ Everyone has not 
always running water at command, and it is a mistake to believe that it is 
actually necessary.’ ‘To cultivate on ordinary soil, take in spring time some 
well-turned mould from an old forcing-bed, and spread it on a suitable place 
to the depth of abeut 6 inches, smooth and water the same evening, finishing 
next day by reducing the soil to a very fine tilth. The seed should then be 
mixed with some fine sand, and sown as evenly as possible on the prepared 
plot, the seed being covered in with a thin layer of mould; next press down, 
water, cover with garden matting; when the seed has sprouted, replace the 
matting with some branches in order to restrain the action of the sun, and 
water lightly in case of dryness. The young plants soon grow; by-and-by 
they flower, when a new covering of mould is given them, leaving the plants 
appearing about Linch above ground. The part above ground should then be 
well freed from soil, anda good watering given. Ten days later shoots begin 
to spring from the roots, which, on attaining 2 inches or 3 inches in length, are 
detached from the parent root and pricked in in rows, about 3 inches or 4 
inches apart, on an old bed which has been well dug. A fortnight later the 
cress attains a length of about 6 inches, when cropping should commence, 
which may be continued, say fortnightly, until frosts setin. Itis indispensable 
to give copious waterings in the evening. 
[Watercress grows to perfection on the Darling Downs, and may be seen 
growing in still water at Toowoomba. Spring Bluff, on the Main Range, is 
celebrated for its excellent watercresses. In the gullies below the Range at 
Toowoomba quantities of excellent cress are to he seen growing in the clear 
pools.—Kd. Q.4.J.] 
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