1 Ocr., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 261 
THE LABLAB. 
This bean, which is also known as the Madagascar or Tonga Bean, 
resembles the preceding variety, but differs from it in that it is of a much less 
vigorous habit of growth, has larger beans, the pods are broader and less 
wrinkled, and the beans are usually darker. At Redland Bay it has not made 
a strong growth, but has produced a heavy crop of beans. The young pods 
can be used as French beans, but the beans of this and the preceding variety 
are inferior to those of the Lima varieties. Jor green-crop manuring, the 
Lablab will be of little value, as on soils such as that of Redland Bay it does 
not make a sufficiently vigorous growth. 
The illustrations herewith give a very good idea of the foliage, flowers, 
pods, and beans of the Small Mauritius Bean and the Poor Man’s Bean—the 
two varieties, which, in view of the experience obtained at Redland Bay, I 
consider to be the most promising pulses that we have grown there for green- 
crop manuring. Whether they will do equally well in other kinds of soil is 
a matter of testing, but for the red volcanic soils, such as that of Redland Bay, 
they have certainly proved to be hardy, vigorous growers, and to produce the 
largest quantity of foliage of any of the pulses that we have tested. The red 
volcanic soils of the coastal districts are distinctly deficient in vegetable matter, 
and therefore pulses, which produce such a quantity of foliage as these two, 
should be of especial value to such soils for the purpose of green-crop 
manuring. 
THE PIGEON PHA. 
Tnx our June issue of the Journal it is stated in Mr. J. F. Bailey’s article on 
the DAl or Pigeon Pea (p. 478) that the crop had turned out most satisfactorily, 
both as regarded weight of fodder and value as feed for stock, the dairy cattle 
being especially fond of it. Since this was written we find occasion to modify 
our eulogiums on this fodder plant. It is true that the crop is a heavy one, 
and that the cattle take to it when it is young and succulent. But when 
chaffed and placed in the silo, it is found that it is a rank failure. And not 
only is it useless itself, but by its coarseness and its mouldiness it destroys 
the better part of a whole mass of corn, barley, and oats in the same silo. 
The stock will not touch it. The whole of the Pigeon Pea packed into the silo 
at the Queensland Agricultural College became mouldy, and was fit for 
nothing but the manure heap. And this was not the only trouble. The stalks 
left in the field (5 feet high) had tu be grubbed out with axe and grubber, 
much as a young scrub grown up in an abandoned selection has to be grubbed. 
Westrongly advise farmers to have nothing to do with a crop which is inferior 
to any other fodder crop grown in Queensland, and which gives so much labour 
in the field after it is cut. 
A GOOD GARDEN AND ORCHARD APPLIANCE. 
By PHILIP MAC MAHON, 
Curator, Botanic Gardens. 
Onn day, looking at the members of the Fire Brigade drilling with their fire- 
escape, the notion occurred that some simple modification of that machine might 
be turned to good account in the garden and orchard. You know how awkward 
the ordinary ladder is to handle. If of any length it takes two men to carry and 
raise, and then you must have something to lean it against which will be pretty 
solid. It will crash into the top of a fine tall shrub, and perhaps break a few 
branches or displace many flowers or fruit. Plants with wide-spreading 
delicate branches you cannot get near at all, since you have nothing to lean 
your unwieldy ladder against. If you use “double ladders” or “steps,” you 
