1 Jur, 1898.] QUEENSHAND AGRICULTURAT, JOURNAL. 435 
Aoriculture. 
QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 
NEW SILO. 
Amonesr other useful work being done at the College during the month of 
May, the filling of the new silo is not the least important. Professor Shelton 
is fully alive to the great value of silage on a farm where much stock is kept, 
and is making ample preparation for the winter feeding of the valuable dairy 
herd at the College. Should the winter turn out as mild as the last one, there 
will not be the necessity for drawing very heavily on the silo; but there is 
nothing like being prepared, and a hard dry winter will thus cause no 
uneasiness on the score of want of feed. The new silo is .a tall structure of 
hardwood with unlined wails of hardwood boards, well seasoned and tarred. 
The roof is movable, and so constructed that it will slide along an extension of 
the wall plates, thus allowing of the silo being filled to the top and trodden 
down solidly, which could not be done if the roof were fixed. Its capacity is 
75 tons, and it is being filled as quickly as possible with chatted teosinte, 
maize, and dal. This is, we understand, the first time that the former and 
latter products have been tried ina silo. Professor Shelton is sanguine that 
teosinte, at least, will prove to be most valuable fodder as silage. The dal is 
an Indian fodder plant known as pigeon pea. A description of the plant is 
given in this issue by Mr. J. I. Bailey, as well as an illustration of the flower, 
seed pod, and manner of growth. There is about an acre of the plant growing” 
at the College, and it is now being cut for the silo. 
Teosintie appears to be a most prolific plant. One stool, of which we give 
an illustration, grown from a single seed, produced above eighty canes which 
grew to a height of 10 feet. It presents a dense mass of foliage, and produces 
large, sweet, succulent canes. The whole of the teosinte, late maize, and dal 
will be got to the silo as quickly as possible. Our illustration shows the 
chaffing machine, elevator, and six-horse power engine driving the cutter. As 
fast as the chaffed fodder drops into the silo three strong lads trample it down 
hard. The work is: warm, as the silo is naturally very close, but the lads strip 
to the waist, and apparently enjoy an hour or two of racing over the fodder, 
thus performing the necessary solidification well and conscientiously. 
THE DATRY. 
Good progress is being made with the new dairy, which is a perfect model 
of a butter factory. The fittings and machinery are all of the most approved 
pattern, and as the building is roofed with tiles and floored with cement it is 
cooler by many degrees than any other buildings about the College premises, 
which have the unsightly iron roofing. One room in the dairy—the chilling 
chamber—has double walls, packed with sawdust, with an hermetically closing 
door. In thé hottest day of summer this room will remain delightfully cool. 
IRRIGATION, 
Arrangements have been made for irrigating the whole of the extensive 
vegetable garden. With this view, a pulsometer pump has been placed at the 
edge of Lockyer Creek, to which steam is conveyed by a pipe leading down the 
bank of the creek from the engine. Iron pipes are laid throughout the beds 
about 80 yards apart, and at intervals there are standpipes fixed to them, to 
